Noctambulism
by Triangulum
Summary: Gambit stumbles to the mansion, bloody and broken. And he doesn't have a clue who did it, making him and Logan 'amnesia buddies'. He meets the intriguing Rogue and finds a reason to stay around. Rated T, post X-3, Rogue didn't get the cure.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N So it's been awhile, apparently I miss the Romy fan community! **

It was a quiet night when Rogue somehow got roped into a chick flick movie night with Kitty and Jubilee. She wasn't quite sure how it happened especially since she normally fought girlie movies with fists of fury. She suspected she caved because she was promised cookies.

"Oh my god! This is a good part!" Jubilee squealed.

"You said that five minutes ago," Rogue sighed.

"It's worth repeating!" Jubilee insisted. Kitty giggled. The handsome man and the beautiful woman kissed ,and Rogue shifted uncomfortably. Kitty and Jubilee 'aww-ed' and Rogue just looked away. This was why she hated chick flicks, they were all about finding love, kissing, and sex, all the things she probably would never have. Rogue glanced up at the screen just as the actress's clothes began to come off. The school's doorbell happened to ring at the same time. Rogue nearly jumped off the couch.

"I'll get it!" she said quickly and walked out of the rec room. Jubilee and Kitty exchanged a look as she went. Rogue made it to the hallway and shook her head to clear the thoughts. There was no use in dwelling on what she couldn't have. Composing herself, she pulled open the door.

The man in the doorway slipped forward, barely managing to catch himself on the frame. His face was covered in bruised and blood, some of which was dripping down from a gash in his head. One eye was swollen shut, but the other was the most beautiful Rogue had seen, black sclera with a burning red iris. His clothes were ripped and he was carrying his arm at an odd angle. He looked at Rogue like he'd been hit by a freight train.

"Stormy," he croaked out. "I'm here…for Stormy. " The man fell into Rogue, who staggered from the sudden weight and effort of trying to keep the man's skin from touching hers.

"Kitty, Jubilee!" Rogue screamed. She lowered the man to the ground, careful of his broken arm. Jubilee and Kitty ran in, eyes wide.

"Oh my god!" Jubilee cried.

"Jubes," Rogue said loudly, trying to keep them calm. "Go get Dr. McCoy. Kitty, get Storm, go!"

Rogue propped the man's head up as her friends took off running. McCoy was up in less than a minute and starting checking over the man. Storm as in a few minutes later.

"Remy!" she was next to them instantly and helped carry the semiconscious Gambit, who had developed a death grip on Rogue.

"I'm sorry, but I need to ask you both to step outside," McCoy said to Rogue and Storm. Reluctantly, Storm left the room and Rogue followed suit after disentangling herself from the man. McCoy started to work on the man's wounds, leaving Rogue and a worried Storm to wait outside. Logan came down a few minutes later to see what the chaos was about.

Since Jean, Scott and the Professor died, Storm had taken over the school. Surprisingly, Logan was at her side every step of the way. Rumors spread like wildfire that they were a couple, but they were just rumors. Probably. Rogue had stayed to help teach with her boyfriend Bobby, and friends Kitty, Pete, and Jubilee. Hank McCoy also came to help.

"His name is Remy LeBeau," Storm told Rogue and Logan. "He's an old friend of mine and he helped me through a particularly hard time in my life. He's from New Orleans, and…is a thief." She hesitated to tell them the last, but decided he wouldn't mind too terribly. "He prefers to go by Gambit though, until he says otherwise."

"What happened to him?" Logan asked.

"I don't know," Storm said. She turned to Rogue. "Did he say anything to you?"

"Not really," she answered. "He said he needed 'Stormy'. I assumed that meant you."

"Stormy?" Logan asked with a raised eyebrow. "Just how close of a friend was this guy?"

"Just friends," Storm answered tolerantly. Hank walked out of the infirmary then, closing the door behind him.

"I cleaned him and patched his as best as I could. He has a broken left arm, various cuts and bruises, same fractures in various other parts, and a pretty serious bump and gash on his head," Hank reported.

"He heals quickly," Storm told him. "Most of that shouldn't take long to heal."

"That's good," Hank nodded. "He's passed out now, shouldn't be out for too much longer."

"Let me know when he's up?" Storm requested.

"Of course," Hank answered. Storm, Logan and Rogue trooped back upstairs.

"I don't feel like somebody could beat him that badly in a fight," Storm confided in them. "Remy is very strong, capable, and an excellent fighter. If there is someone that can do that to him, I don't want to meet them."

Storm checked in with Hank regularly over the next two days, but he reported no change. Rogue took dinner down to Hank the night of the third day, when something in the infirmary clanged to the ground. Rogue ran in to see the man, Gambit, had thrashed out of his bed and was wielding the IV stand like a staff. Hank was standing on the other side of the room, hands up, trying to calm the other man.

Gambit looked over when Rogue entered the room and a spark of recognition flashed through his eyes. He faltered and switched to addressing her, apparently unhappy with Hank's soothing words

"Who are yo'?" he asked her.

"I'm Rogue, the one you bled all over the other night," she answered.

"Where am I?" he asked slowly, lowering his makeshift weapon slightly.

"Xavier's school," Rogue told him. "We've been saving you, if you don't remember."

"No, I don't remember," he said softly. "Stormy's school yo' say?"

"Yep."

"Why didn't yo' say so!" Gambit dropped the IV stand and walked over the shake Hank's hand. "Thank yo' for patching me up doc, and sorry for dat, little thing I have against hospitals."

"I understand perfectly," he assured him. "Did you say you aren't remembering anything?"

Gambit frowned and looked at Rogue. "I remember falling into de lovely arms of dis belle fille, but nothing beyond dat, no."

"So you don't remember who did this to you?" Rogue asked.

"I wish I did, chère," he said. "Now! Show me t' Stormy."

"I really think you should rest here for longer," Hank tried to insist, but Gambit waved him away.

"No offense, but I don't do hospital settings like dis. Where's Stormy?"

"I'll take him," Rogue offered and lead Gambit out, leaving a frustrated Hank behind.

"So Rogue, how'd Stormy rope you in t' working at a school?" Gambit asked. He threw his arm around Rogue's shoulders and she jumped away like he'd burned her. He put his hands up in surrender. "Whoa, ma chère, dis Cajun meant no harm."

"It's not you," Rogue said quickly. Gambit took her in as she readjusted her long sleeves and gloves, even though they hadn't shifted. "My mutation, it will suck the life out of you if you touch me."

"If I touch you period?"

"Well, skin to skin."

"I was nowhere near your skin," Gambit said. Rogue assessed him shrewdly, glaring at him as if daring him to say 'just kidding'. He didn't. "Yo' seem surprised."

"Most people keep their distance when they learn that." Gambit nearly flinched at the bitterness in her voice. He moved closer and solidly put his arm around her in a half hug and continued walking that way.

"I'm not," Gambit said. "So no touch ever?"

"Nope."

"Never ever?"

"Never, unless I want to borrow their powers, memories and maybe take their lives," she said, humor turning into bitterness and sadness. Gambit was saved from answering by their arrival at Storm's door.

"Remy!" Storm exclaimed as she opened her door and hugged her friend. "What're you doing, why aren't you in the med lab?"

"Yo' know me and hospitals. Before yo' ask, oui, I'm, very tired and non, I don't know who did dis t' me. Can I get a spare room and talk to yo' about it tomorrow?"

Storm sighed. "Rogue, could you bring him to one of the empty staff rooms?"

"Sure," Rogue answered and turned to leave.

"And Remy, don't you start your womanizing!" Storm ordered.

"Womanizing? Yo' wound dis heart! I don't womanize, I romance! I am a ladies' man."

"Whatever you want to call if, don't you dare try it," she warned. Gambit saluted and followed Rogue out.

"Ladies' man?" Rogue inquired as they walked through the halls. Gambit's arm already made its way around her. She knew she probably should tell him to move his arm, Bobby wouldn't be thrilled, but she couldn't bring herself to. Her boyfriend hardly touched her, and she found herself desperate for the sensation. "I never would have guessed."

Gambit shrugged. "I enjoy de romance."

"Must be nice," Rogue said. "I'd listen to Storm though, she might sic the Wolverine on you."

"Wolverine?" Gambit perked up. "Logan, short cranky, head of metal?"

"You know Logan?" Rogue asked, surprised.

"In a manner of speaking, not sure if he will remember me. Do me a favor and don't tell him, I'd like t' speak t' him myself."

"Sure," she agreed. "Here's your room, feel free to come down for breakfast tomorrow."

"Thank you cherie," he said, trailing his arm down to her hip. She smacked his hand away.

"Watch it Cajun, or I'll put that other arm in a sling, too."

"Now dat's just mean," he said and pretended to pout.

"I mean it," she said. "And if I don't Logan will."

"No need t' get nasty," he joked. "Goodnight chere, I will see yo' tomorrow, yes?"

"Yeah you will, goodnight."

She left the Cajun greatly appreciating the view as she walked the other way down the hall to her room.

Gambit made it down to the kitchen about the same time as Storm for breakfast the next morning. He waved jovially and started to heap piles of food onto his plate. He sat down next to Storm and Logan with a big smile on his face.

"You're Gambit, eh?" Logan asked, assessing the man. "How's the face?"

"Logan!" Gambit greeted enthusiastically. "How's de brain injury, remember who I am yet?" Logan's fork missed his mouth.

"What? Do you know me?"

"I do," Gambit affirmed. "Yo' had me take yo t' Styker's island. Yo' promised t' kill everyone dere. Almost worked, you leveled a big ass building, but when I found yo' again, yo' didn't remember me at all."

"That's it?" Logan asked.

"Yo' found me in N'Awlins," Gambit offered. "But nothing father than that."

Logan sat, fork still in hand, for a good minute while absorbing this. Gambit however, turned his attention to the door where Rogue walked in with a blonde boy. Though they were hand in hand, the boy kept at least two solid feet of distance between them.

Rogue waved and once they'd filled their plates she dragged the boy with her to their table. "Morning, Logan," she greeted.

"Hey darlin'," he answered, still thinking over Gambit's words.

"Good morning, ma chère," Gambit greeted her. Storm's eyes slid over to him.

"You, too, Cajun," she answered. "Gambit, this is my boyfriend, Bobby." Bobby nodded stiffly at the man and Gambit saluted him with his fork. He observed that, once again, Bobby was leaving a lot of room between them. Gambit wondered if the boy was stupid, Rogue was obviously clothed and covered. He swore he say flinches of annoyance on Rogue's face.

"It looks a lot better," Rogue commented, referring to his face. "Still no epiphany?"

Gambit shook his head. "No, still de same. All I remember is falling into yo', den nothing since my cousin's birthday party which if the calendar is correct, was two weeks ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Storm said.

"On de bright side, it looks like I can be amnesia buddies with Logan." That earned him a glare.

"Well Remy, you are welcome to stay here until we've figured out what happened," Storm offered. Bobby shifted as Gambit looked straight at Rogue while he answered.

"Thanks, Stormy, I think I will see what yo' all get up t' and stick around for a bit."

**A/N More to come!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N School is kicking me where it counts, but here's chapter two.**

Storm was more than pleased with Gambit's choice to stay. She had tried to convince him for years to come up, but he'd always had an excuse not to. At first, Storm was worried that Gambit's curiosity in Rogue was unhealthy and the main reason he was staying, but Gambit also started to cultivate an unusual friendship with Logan as well. They were frequently seen leaving to hit up bars and casinos. Rogue called these nights their 'man dates'.

During the day, Gambit helped out Rogue with training some of the beginning to intermediate students in self defense. Logan became frustrated too easily so Rogue had taken over many of the younger classes. She also took over many of the creative writing classes. Gambit somehow got roped into teaching French, much to his dismay.

"How'd yo' talk me into dis again?" he muttered to Storm before the first day.

"I asked," Storm said.

"Well like I told yo' already, dey won't learn traditional French, it'll all be Cajun slang," Gambit warned.

"Cajun French is better than none," Storm said.

"I didn't plan on staying here dis long."

"Do you want to leave?" Storm asked, worried.

"No," Gambit said thoughtfully. "Which is odd…" Storm let it be at that.

It was a good bet that if Gambit wasn't with Logan, he was with Rogue. While he got along with most people at the mansion just fine, he just clicked better with the two of them. He bumped into an unpleasant blast from his past though, a fierce anger named Emma Frost. No one seemed to know why they hated each other, and neither were telling, but the tension between the two was obvious. Emma made a snide comment whenever she passed Gambit, and he either made a move to trip her or called her a skank, though only when Storm wasn't around.

"Why don't you just make nice with her?" Storm suggested out of irritation.

"Not likely," Gambit snorted. "Why do yo' want a cold hearted bitch like Emma around anyways?"

"She's valuable," Storm told him. "Without a telepath cerebro is useless, and we are very nearly blind and defenseless. She even took some of the professor's classes."

"Don't care," Gambit said. "Doesn't make up for being a rotten person."

"I was hoping you would be willing to work with her, see if you can overcome the amnesia."

"No."

"Remy…"

"No."

The hostility wasn't too difficult since Emma hardly spent any time with the majority of the school. She also managed to avoid having to supervise the school's Halloween dance thrown for the middle and high school aged students. Gambit blamed her psychic abilities. He, Rogue, Bobby, Pete and Kitty had been delegated the task of chaperoning the event.

Gambit sat sipping his drink, which he was glad Storm wasn't there to chastise him for, at a small table with Rogue, Bobby and Pete. Kitty was busy on the other side of the dance floor, dragging two fighting girls upstairs. Gambit casually flicked a card that exploded at the feet of a couple dancing rather provocatively, causing them to jump back from each other.

"I'm actually pretty impressed with what Storm's done with the place," Rogue commented. It was a good point, the formal dining hall that was never used was decorated with orange and black drapes, with eerie candles on each small, round table. Music was blasting through speakers on the far wall. Rogue watched with a grin as Pete followed Kitty with his eyes as she dragged the screaming girls out of the hall.

"What?" Pete asked.

"Nothing," Rogue answered. "Just admiring you admiring the view." Pete blushed.

"Pete got a bit of a crush on Kittttty!" Bobby teased. Rogue kicked him under the table as Pete grew impossibly redder.

"Nothing wrong with dat mon ami," Gambit said smoothly. Rogue shot him a grateful look. "Does she know you feel dat way?"

"Uh, no," Pete said awkwardly. Bobby was still making kissy faces at him.

"Well yo' should do something about dat," Gambit said, ignoring Bobby.

"Er…" Pete stuttered.

"I know it can be overwhelming," Gambit went on. "But yo' can even use de shyness t' your advantage. Some women love de shy, sweet man."

"It's true," Rogue chimed in. "Even if she doesn't feel the same, at least you won't have to worry about it anymore."

"De idea is t' do something simple dat shows yo' are thinking about her, too much flamboyance is only going to freak out de femme."

"Like what?" Pete asked cautiously.

"Could be anything," Gambit said while Bobby tried to not make it obvious that he was listening for pointers from the ladies man. "Something like an innocent touch…" He demonstrated by brushing his fingers across Rogue's hand as he reached for his drink. "A compliment, not a creepy one though. Or a kind gesture, anything t' make yo' stick out in her mind."

"Hey Rogue," Bobby said, drawing inspiration from Gambit's words. "Wanna dance?" Gambit worked hard not to wince at the way he asked. Rogue smiled and trailed after her boyfriend.

"See dat?" Gambit said, referring to the couple. "Dat's not de way t' do it. 'Wanna dance' sounds like a pimply 14 year old boy whose voice hasn't broken yet asking his date t' dance. Not de kind of thing for an adult t' do." Pete nodded, embarrassment fading when Bobby and his teasing disappeared.

Gambit shook his head, it was almost too awkward to watch Bobby and Rogue. Bobby had his hands on Rogue's waist but his arms were straight, keeping her body from straying too close to his. He looked very much, as Gambit had said, like an awkward kid trying to dance with his new date. His eyes narrowed as he saw Bobby trying to show Rogue he was being the sweet, loving boyfriend, while physically distancing them and literally keeping her at arm's length. Gambit shook his head in disgust as the song ended. He leaned over to Pete.

"See Bobby's mistake? Watch de difference of de master," Gambit said. Pete raised his eyebrows .Bobby and Rogue sat back down, Bobby looking smug and triumphant while Rogue had a polite smile in place. Gambit stood and walked until he was in front of the sitting Rogue. He put his hand, palm up, in front of her.

"Dance with me, cherie?" he asked. Rogue glanced at Bobby, who shrugged, before taking Gambit's hand shyly. He pulled her to her feet and led her to the dance floor just as a slow tempo song came on. He swung her out, then pulled her in, close. Bobby narrowed his eyes as Gambit wrapped an arm around Rogue's waist, pulling her body right up against his. He took her hand in hi free one and started the slow dance.

This close to him, Rogue could feel his heart beating steadily against her chest, and smell his musky yet surprisingly clean scent. Gambit could also feel her heart, which seemed to be beating extra hard. He frowned, worried he was making her uncomfortable. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured him.

"Bon," he said, shaking off the inexplicable moment of insecurity. He rubbed his thumb where it sat on her lower back as they moved to the music. Rogue was very aware of his breath against her neck by the time the song ended. The places where his hands had been touching her still felt warm as he pulled her to the table by her hand, kissing the back of it as they took their seats. Bobby glared at Gambit and muttered something about 'get your own girlfriend'. Rogue smacked him again. They wrapped up the night not too long after, sending the younger students to bed. They all requested the next dance off.

After a few weeks, when Gambit's arm had miraculously healed, he was invited to join in on team practices in the danger room. He made it very clear that he wasn't joining the X-Men, but he was happy to train with them. Logan had set up one of the exercises to put half the teams against the other half. Rogue, Bobby and Jubilee were going head to head against Gambit, Kitty and Pete.

"Last group standing wins, your goal is to have as much of your team left standing as possible. Storm and I will be calling death blows from the control room," Logan announced. The danger room scene changed to a rolling meadow. Kitty and Bobby laughed a little. "Funny?" Logan asked. Three feet to his left, a pillar shot from the ground and grew fifteen feet tall. Similar pillars in different sizes shot out everywhere around them. "You need to be aware of your surrounding and how they change. The obstacles will get more involved as time goes on. Have at it."

Like Logan said, it started out slow with growing pillars. Soon, the pillars began to move as if the ground was made of water. The teams squared off and began against each other. Jubilee threw blinding fireworks at the opposite team. Pete and Kitty were expecting this managed to look way in time, but Gambit, who'd never trained with Jubilee, wasn't so lucky. Temporarily blinded, Bobby jumped in, icing the ground under his feet. Gambit stumbled, but didn't fall. He extended his bo staff and started deflecting chunks of ice Bobby flung a bit angrily his way. Rogue was in the middle of a fight with Pete when she glanced over to Gambit and Bobby. Bobby hadn't ever been around Gambit while using his powers, so he didn't recognize the magenta glow emanating from his hands.

"Bobby, watch out!" she yelled over her shoulder, turning in time to take a glancing blow from Pete. Her warning wasn't in time though, Gambit's charged card hit Bobby in the forehead, singing his eyebrows.

"Bobby's out," Logan's voice came over the speaker. Bobby huffed, not convinced Gambit was lethal, and moved to sit on the sidelines. By this time, the pillars were moving, changing in height, and the earth was rolling beneath their feet. Rogue grabbed Pete's arm and thank to the hole in the palm of her glove, absorbed his strength. She turned herself metallic, grabbed a pillar and swung, managing to clip both Gambit and Pete.

Kitty and Jubilee were trapped in a weird dance of fireworks and phasing, when gravity started slowly changing. Fed up, Kitty phased Jubilee and threw her fairly bodily into Rogue. Pete made a grab for her, but with her palm flat on the grass she used her power to light the grass, and Pete, on holographic fire.

"That's Pete down," called Storm. Jubilee had some success deflecting Gambit's charged cards with some fireworks, but she too was soon out. Rogue, still with Pete's power, surprised Kitty by knocking her down then punching a hole two feet deep next to her head, and she was sent to the sidelines.

Now it was flickering between night and day, as Rogue and Gambit circled each other cautiously. Teaching fighting with each other everyday had given them a fairly good grip of each other's styles. Finally, Gambit lunged. Rogue dodged neatly, and sent a kick his way. He dodged and threw an array of glowing cards her way. Rogue whipped herself around the now bouncing pillars and swung into Gambit's side, who grabbed her waist neatly and rolled them onto the ground. When they'd fallen, Rogue's plamless glove was a centimeter from Gambit's face and his glowing staff was poised next to her ear. They froze for a few seconds, then Gambit tapped her on the head with the staff, releasing the charge at the last minute.

"I win," he said gleefully, hopping up.

"It was a draw," Rogue said and pulled herself to her feet.

"Nope, a win."

"Draw."

"Win, Rogue!"

"Draw, Swamp Rat!"

"I won!" Gambit yelled, throwing exploding cards into the air.

"Don't you mean WE won?" Kitty asked.

"Depends, are WE sitting on de sidelines?"

"Next time you'll all be working as a unit," Logan promised. "This was just to shake things up for you. For fun."

"Fun he calls it," Jubilee said faintly. "He gets to sit up there, ogle at Storm and drink his beer while he calls this 'fun'."

"I heard that."

"Of course you did!" Jubilee yelled. "You hear everything! There's a horse shitting in Arkansas right now that you can hear!"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N I don't particularly have anything to say. Shocking, isn't it?**

Gambit seamlessly worked into the mansion's routine of chores, classes and training. He ventured out in the real world too, though it was often in the company of Rogue, Logan or sometimes Storm. Storm, strongly suspected Gambit was uncomfortable not knowing why he was attacked so he stuck with groups. Not that she would ever mention thinking that to him.

"I don't understand it," Kitty said between mouthfuls of popcorn. "There's almost no Brotherhood movement at all. It's like Magneto's taking a holiday." They were gathered in the rec room on a Friday night, enjoying the start of their weekend. Gambit was playing a game of pool with Logan while Rogue, watching on, acted as their bookie. Kitty, Pete, Jubilee and oddly, Storm and Emma were flipping through the various channels, now on a news station.

"It is odd," Storm agreed over the story of a record breaking sky dive. If that was the most interesting thing the news had to report, she supposed she should consider them all lucky. They broke into discussion of training, tactics and mutants rights, and Gambit frowned, looking at Logan oddly.

"What, Cajun?" he asked, taking his shot. Gambit shook his head.

"Nothing, I just had de feeling I needed to ask or tell yo' something. I just can't remember."

"Seems to be a theme for you," Logan grunted.

"Look's who's talking," Gambit quipped. "Hey Rogue, still want t' see dat movie with me, Logan and Stormy tomorrow?"

"I actually can't," she said apologetically. "I have a sessions with Emma, then I booked some danger room time."

"What do yo' do in dose sessions, meditate for nirvana?" he asked, sinking the seven ball. Emma shot him a dirty look from the couch.

"No, though there is meditation involved," Rogue said. She took in his jittering leg and the fingers twirling the pool cue. "Something you probably would benefit from."

"Ha, ha."

"It's true. But we work on trying to control my powers and figure out why I can't."

"I hope that happens soon," Bobby muttered, but only loud enough for Logan to hear, and Emma could 'hear'. She shot him a scathing look that clearly said she would get him later for that. Logan felt a surge of affection for the woman.

"I actually can't make it either," Storm said.

"Well Monsieur Logan, looks like it's just yo' and me," Gambit said.

"Then let's modify it from a movie night to a bar night."

"I can get on board with dat."

So the next night, while Rogue set off for Emma's room, Logan and Gambit took off for the bar. Gambit was a few bottles in and actually feeling a bit tipsy, when he was approached by a very shapely blonde. After a few minutes of flirting, she walked away in search of other prey.

"I'm starting to think your rumored ladies man status is nothing but lies," Logan commented, going back to his nineteenth beer.

"Believe me, dey're not," Gambit promised, taking another swig. "Plus, not dat it's a requirement, but I prefer brunettes."

"I've seen you turn brunettes away, too," Logan said. "Or are you thinking brunettes like Rogue?"

"I never said dat mon ami," Gambit said smoothly.

"That's good," Logan said. "Only reason I don't wring little ice-boy Drake's neck is they're already together and she'd be pissed."

"She'd be pissed if yo' made me into a Cajun kabob."

"Only a little."

"But no, dat's not de reason," Gambit said. He took the last drink of his bottle and sighed. "It's dat…I don't know what happened. It could have been just a bar fight dat got out of control, though I doubt it. Most likely, someone big and bad wants my head and I don't know who."

"Don't you have slippery contacts to go to for something like that?"

"The slipperiest. But dey've heard nothing. Same with my famille and de guild. Which makes me paranoid. What if de next femme I seduce has my name on an assassin's roster? Non, for now, dis is better."

Logan nodded in acknowledgement. "I understand you there." They were silent for a few minutes before Gambit spoke again.

" I don't remember deux weeks of August, yo' can't remember decades of your LIFE. I can't imagine mon ami…and I respect yo' for not going bonkers. Though if you ever repeat dat, I'll blame it on your brain injury."

By the time they got back to the mansion, Rogue was the only one up, sitting in the rec room reading. She looked up as the two men walked in, reeking of alcohol.

"Whooooa," Rogue said as Gambit plopped down next to her, smelling very much like he'd been dumped in a swimming pool of bourbon. Logan chuckled and sat on the chair across from the couch. "Did you guys drink the whole bar?"

"Close," Logan said. They laughed. "How'd your session go?"

"Same," Rogue said with a shrug, avoiding their eyes. "Makes it hard to sleep." Logan leaned over and clapped heron the shoulder. She gave him a small smile.

"It's helping though, right?"

"I think so," she said. "Emma says she's pretty sure I've been blocking myself because I've been so scared after what happened with David…and you." She threw him an apologetic look.

"Don't worry darlin', you already know that wasn't your fault." He stood, cracked his neck and headed to bead, calling over his shoulder, "You'll get it." Gambit looked over to Rogue.

"What happened with David and Wolvie?" he asked. The look on Rogue's face was near anguish, and he instantly regretted asking. "Desole, I didn't mean…"

"You know how mutations usually are triggered by emotions?" Rogue interrupted him. He nodded. "Mine manifested during my first kiss."

"Oh chere."

"He was in a coma for awhile. Then I absorbed Logan when he accidently stabbed me in the chest."

"When he what?"

"Yep," she continued. "Then, well you remember the whole Liberty Island thing? Yeah, Magneto transferred his power to me and used me to power the machine because it would kill whoever used it, and he was too high and mighty to die for his cause. So it nearly killed me, by the time Logan saved me I was unconscious and he touched me…he was in a coma for a long time." Gambit took her hand. "Funny," she said musingly. "He's the only one here that I've really hurt and he's still the only one that isn't afraid to touch me."

"I'm not afraid of yo'," he said.

"That's because you're crazy," she laughed, then sobered. "Even Bobby hesitates…"

"I've noticed," he said. Rogue winced.

"It's not really something that's easy to bring up to him."

"How do yo' guys…get around de touching thing?" he asked. Rogue blushed.

"Not easily. It's…challenging. And we haven't done anything in awhile, too many accidents." Rogue paused and looked over at him. "Why am I telling you this?"

"Because I'm your friend and yo' need someone t' talk t'," Gambit said with a shrug.

"Mm," Rogue said. "I'm working with Emma, she thinks it's doable."

"Key is de confidence," Gambit said. "Yo' need t' believe yo' can do it."

"Funny, that's what Emma said."

"What do yo' know, skank bag and I agree on something. Be still my heart." Rogue laughed. She stood and stretched. Gambit followed her movements with his eyes.

"I probably should try to sleep," Rogue said. "Goodnight, Gambit."

"Remy," he called. "Call me Remy."

Rogue smiled. "Goodnight Remy."

"Goodnight chere," he called after her, then muttered ,"Yo' deserve much better dan what yo' have."

Rogue paid even closer attention to Bobby's actions since Gambit told her he had noticed the distancing behavior. She tried sitting closer to him, holding his hand more, even the quick kisses they usually manage with thick lip balm were rejected. Rogue was hurt, embarrassed, and pissed.

Their fights became louder and more public, even to the point where Storm had to intervene. Logan, in the middle of one of their fights, offered to gut him like a tuna. Rogue narrowed her eyes dangerously at Bobby and said she'd consider it.

Things were quieting down between them when Bobby walked into the rec room and was displeased with what he saw. Rogue was leaning on Gambit's shoulder, nearly asleep from the long day of training. Gambit patted her knee and Bobby fumed.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Bobby yelled, storming into the room. Rogue and Gambit looked up, both expected Bobby to be yelling at Rogue. "Can't you find yourself a girlfriend of your own?"

"What?" Gambit asked.

"You flirt with everyone! Can't you just leave her alone?"

"Bobby," Rogue hissed.

"Stop touching my girlfriend!"

"Well someone should," Gambit said coldly. An unnatural hush fell over the room.

"What?" Bobby said.

"Yo' heard me," Gambit said. He stood, walked past the stuttering Bobby.

Rogue walked up and snapped, "You're such an ass!" before storming out of the mansion. A few seconds later, they heard the roar of her motorcycle leaving the mansion. Logan walked up to the embarrassed Bobby and unsheathed his claws an inch from his face.

"Watch yourself, boy," he growled, before stalking out. Jubilee and Kitty followed, shaking their heads.

Rogue came back a few hours later, but stayed in the garage working under the hood of one of the school's cars. Gambit came in an hour or so later and started wordlessly assisting her. Rogue accepted the silent help, content with spending all her attention on the unhappy engine. After a few hours of work, they washed their hands and made their way into the mansion.

"Desole," he said when they were right outside the door.

"Sorry? For what?" she asked.

"For causing problem with yo' and Bobby."

"No," Rogue said, shaking her head. "We've been having problems all by ourselves. You just helped make them more vocal." Gambit snorted at that. He highly doubted Rogue needed any help being vocal.

"Yo' deserve someone who craves t' touch yo', not just who holds hands for public viewing. Yo' deserve a man, not a boy, who will caress yo' and can't wait t' get yo' alone, not just someone who touches yo' when yo' ask." Rogue looked away, heart beat speeding. "Something t' consider." He turned and marched inside.


	4. Chapter 4

The public and emotional spanking seemed to calm Bobby down. He and Rogue weren't fighting as much, though there was definite tension. Bobby made an effort, even setting a date night later in the week. The team watched as Rogue and Bobby left, each wanting to shake their head.

"I could just throttle him," Jubilee muttered. Gambit couldn't agree more.

"I hope they can work it out," Kitty said diplomatically.

"Iceboy's gotta mature out a bit first," Logan said. They didn't have much time to contemplate it though. Storm came in looking grave.

"I need everybody to suit up. Jubilee, you'll be on babysitting duty," Storm said.

"Damn it," Jubilee muttered.

"There's a dead mutant in Philadelphia, a friend of mine works with homeless mutants and found one dead in their shelter."

"It's tragic, but we aren't mutant CSI, what does this have to do with us?" Kitty asked.

"It could be a freak accident, but she doesn't think so and neither do I. Apparently, the dead girl was a very powerful mutant, beaten to death," Storm said and looked at Gambit, who felt chilled. "It may be a coincidence but if someone is targeting mutants, we need to know."

They filed to the jet and Gambit felt himself experiencing the fluttering of a nearly foreign feeling for him: anxiety. The flight to Philadelphia was short, giving Gambit no time to think through his misgivings. He wasn't sure why Storm had brought the whole team. Like Kitty said, this wasn't what they did. The mutant was beaten and broken. Kitty winced at the blood pooled around the mutant, barely dead longer than an hour. According to Storm's friend, the cops hadn't yet been called, so they X-Men could leave no mark of their presence.

Logan noted similarities between Gambit's wounds and the mutant's, which unnerved them all. According to Storm's friend, the dead mutant girl had had strength nearly to rival Logan's, but since her healing factor was still developing. Someone was able to mortally injure her. None of them liked the sound of that. Storm's friend thanked them for looking, even though she acknowledged she didn't reall know what they could.

Back at the mansion, Storm set Kitty to the task of searching for any sign of activity in violent hate groups. Hours in, Kitty was forced to give up. There were signs of the usual tough talk and protests, but nothing that hinted to murder. Gambit reached out to his Guild contacts but all was quiet. Frustrated, but satisfied that they exhausted all the options they could, Storm had to concede that it was probably a freak coincidence.

Life resumed, and while everyone had the murder in the back of their minds, they pushed it to the side of their thoughts and pressed on. Gambit and Rogue were having some progress with their beginning self defense class. The kids had started out with the basic idea of slapping to get the job done. It took Gambit what he thought to be entirely too much time to teach them how to throw a punch.

"Okay," he said, standing in front of the class, who as assembled in the danger room. "We're going t' do a practical exercise today." The young students shuffled nervously. The scene changed to a dojo style gym.

"There are going to be swarms of enemies, starting small and weak, and growing in size and intensity," Rogue explained. "Last mutant standing wins."

"No powers," Gambit added.

The class of twenty spread themselves out, making sure they could see all around them. The first wave of enemies was a rather ugly group of large spider-like creatures slowly flowing at them. They were all fairly successful, which Rogue and Gambit were relieved about. The next were simulations of a person about their size. Most took care of it easily but a few couldn't, they were sidelined.

Next were two people about their size. This cut the number down to half. Gambit nearly ground his teeth together. Another thing to work on. With nine kids left, the attackers got more and more skilled. When there were four attackers of various heights and stalls, only three students were left. When it came down to two, a boy and a girl, the number of attackers grew to five.

When he thought Gambit and Rogue weren't looking, the little boy kicked out and when he brought his foot to the ground, he used his mutation to send an electric shock out to the girl, dazing her. The only reason Gambit saw it was his enhanced vision. His eyes narrowed. The slightly electrified girl was dazed and was quickly overpowered and subdued. The automated attackers disappeared leaving only to the boy, Johnny, standing. Gambit whispered to Rogue before addressing the class.

"All of yo' did very well. There are some things t' work in, but overall good job," Gambit told the class. He turned to the smug Johnny and still slightly hazy Adrienne. "Don't ever do dat again," he said coldly.

"What?" Johnny asked.

"Yo' know what."

Johnny's eyes slid to Adrienne. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"Yo' attacked your classmate t' win, dis is not acceptable. Yo' are training t' work together eventually, as a unit. Yo' don't attack team members."

"That wasn't the lesson," Johnny said. "The goal was to survive."

"And if yo' choose t' survive by betraying or hurting others, yo' miss de whole point of being taught by de X-Men," Gambit said, voice still cold. He spoke to the class. "Let dat be a lesson t' all of yo'. Being a backstabbing little shit will get yo' nowhere fast."

"Johnny, detention with Logan," Rogue said, cutting off Gambit. "Also, when we say no powers, we mean it for a reason. Leaning to hone powers offensively or defensively comes later, this is basic hand to hand. Adrienne wins, class dismissed." The class filed out, Johnny sullenly sulking away.

"He should be throttled," Gambit muttered.

"He's just a kid, he'll learn," Rogue said.

"Or he'll just stay de way he is and become a bully. He's going down de wrong path fast."

"Funny to hear about the wrong path from you," Rogue joked.

"Isn't it?" Gambit smiled. "In all seriousness though, I'm a thief, not a thug. I know thugs, I've worked with dem, but yo' can never trust dem. If he doesn't turn things around, he could easily end up in de wrong crowd, or dead."

Rogue sighed. "We'll have to do what we can for him. But sometimes we do lose people."

"It's true," Gambit said, nodding sagely. "Yo' can't save everyone."

They left the danger room and walked up to the kitchen for lunch. They grabbed their lunch of sandwiches (Jubilee was on kitchen duty) and took a table. "Yo' okay chère?" Gambit asked. "Yo' have been quiet all day."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. She hesitated for a second before adding, "Tomorrow's my anniversary with Bobby."

"Oh," Gambit said. "And dat's a bad thing?"

"No," she said. "I don't know if he remembers."

"Ah, not going t' remind him?"

"Nope," she said. "It's been enough time that he should remember on his own."

"Speak of de devil," Gambit said and nodded to the door. Bobby's eyes narrowed at he saw Gambit. He came and purposefully kissed the top of Rogue's head before sitting down.

"Hey Rogue, I was wondering what you were doing tomorrow night?" Bobby asked. Rogue's head perked up.

"Nothing, why?" she asked, obviously thrilled at the prospect of her long term boyfriend remembering an important anniversary.

"Well a few of us are going to check out this monster truck derby in town, wanna tag along?" Bobby asked.

Rogue's face became cold and she venomously hissed," Not even if you paid me." With a few slams, she grabbed her dishes and stormed away as Kitty and Jubilee sat down.

"What's up with Rogue?" Kitty asked.

"Ask Ice Dick," Gambit said before he too departed. He heard the girls groan as he left. Rogue was in a rather bad mood for the rest of the day, and no one but Logan and Gambit knew why. They weren't telling, either, as if by some unspoken conspiracy they were both content to watch Bobby fall on his face. Gambit made many valiant attempts to brighten Rogue's mood, from odd faces, to explosive juggling.

Rogue feared he might have taken it too far when Logan thundered into her room, demanding to know where the 'good for nothin', god damn Cajun' was. Alarmed, Rogue said she didn't know. It wasn't until he turned around that Rogue saw the cause of his irritation. A dozen or so small, high powered magnets were stuck all over his back, most in places where he couldn't reach.

Rogue was shocked into laughter, which of course was Gambit's whole point. Logan growled and stalked down the hall, sending kids running out of his way. Gambit swung in through her window a few seconds later, landing softly next to her. She turned, amused expression on her face.

"You really are crazy," she said.

"Was dere any doubt?" Gambit asked with a smile. That odd feeling of tugging forgetfulness hit him again, and his smile turned to a slight frown.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing is wrong exactly," Gambit said. "I just got dis nagging feeling dat I forgot t' tell yo' something."

"You'll think of it."

"Probably just a dirty limerick," Gambit agreed.

Storm called an emergency meeting that night, dragging the bewildered X-Men to the war room. "It wasn't a freak accident," Storm announced.

"What?"

"The murder?"

"There was another attack," Storm said. "The mutant was attacked two miles from here." Silence met her statement.

"From here?" Kitty finally gasped out.

"Yes," Storm said. "Someone anonymously called the cops and just said someone was being attacked. The cops scared the attackers off."

"Well we can ask the mutant who did it!" Bobby said excitedly, but Storm shook her head.

"The mutant died at the hospital."

More silence.

"Did dey say anything?" Gambit asked.

"He told the medics he was coming here, to deliver a warning."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Well, there goes my update schedule. My bad.**

The search for active hate groups resumed, though the results were much the same as before. Kitty couldn't find anything, neither could Gambit, which made them all think this group was very organized, and very good at staying off the radar. They weren't giving up, Storm stressed that, but they also knew there wasn't much they could do. They didn't know what the warning was that the mutant wanted to give them, they didn't know who was attacking mutants and they didn't know why. Still frustrated, Storm had to keep the search from consuming mansion life, though they would still search. Odds were the more confident the group got, the more careless they would get.

The next morning, Rogue woke up in a foul mood. She didn't speak to anyone, and if she did, it was with very short and clipped and sentences. Bobby, annoyed, took her ignoring him to heart and ignored her right back. She didn't normally behave like that toward him, but he didn't put much thought into it. And later that night, instead of remembering their anniversary, Bobby left in a huff to the rally. Rogue retreated to her room with a book.

The next morning, Rogue woke up in another melancholy mood. She lay in bed for awhile, thinking everything over. Maybe she wasn't being fair. Maybe Bobby had just made a mistake. Rogue swore and swung herself out of bed. Either way, she had to go talk to him. She quickly got dressed and made her way to his room to make peace. She knocked once and let herself in. It wasn't quite what she was expecting.

Bobby lay half under the blankets, though the half that was exposed wasn't wearing anything. Neither was the redhead curled next to him. Rogue slammed the door behind her, jarring the two awake.

"Rogue?" Bobby muttered sleepily. He then took in his situation and started stuttering. "R-Rogue, I...I…I…"

"Some monster truck rally, huh," Rogue said coldly. The redhead just sat with the deer in the headlights look on her face. "Did you know he had a girlfriend?" Rogue asked. The girl shook her head. "Okay, then I'll send a giant FUCK YOU to you, Bobby." She turned and yanked the door open.

"Rogue, wait!" Bobby yelled and jumped out of bed, blanket wrapped around his waist.

"I don't want to hear it," Rogue said. She slammed the door so hard that glass all around the room shattered. Bobby ran out the door and followed her out.

"Rogue, wait please!" He tripped on his toga and fell. Rogue kept walking, leaving other curious residents to see a half naked Bobby on the ground, with the redhead woman in one of his blankets, poking her head around the door.

Gambit and Logan made it to the scene at the same time. They both needed only a glance to figure out what happened. Gambit swore loudly and Logan glared murderously at Bobby, who backed away slowly, blanket still around his waist. Gambit stopped Logan from moving forward, knowing that he would reduce Bobby to nothing but a pile of goop. Instead, Gambit sent a charged card Bobby's way.

He jumped, trying to shoot ice to stop the card and lost the sheet in the process, also missing the card. Gambit's card hit above Bobby's left hip and exploded, leaving a huge burned patch. He yelped, and Gambit and Logan exchanged evil smirks. Gambit turned to go look for Rogue, but Logan stopped him.

"Let me."

Rogue wasn't in her room, though Logan didn't really expect her to be. She wasn't on the roof or lawn. He went to check if her car was there, and he found her in the garage, sitting on the hood of her garage. She looked the other way when she heard him come in. Logan leaned against the bumper, and the car sank considerably.

"What's up kid?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said. Her voice was thick and he'd have been able to tell she was crying even if he hadn't been able to smell the tears.

"Gambit blew up Bobby, if that helps."

Rogue choked out a laugh. "It does a bit," she admitted. Logan put an arm around her and pulled her closer. She leaned into him and he saw her tearstained face. He had a sudden surge of rage for Bobby. He rubbed her shoulder and they sat in silence for awhile. Eventually her tears slowed and stopped.

"So what're you gonna do?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I just…I'm absorbing it right now."

"Okay," Logan said. "It's understandable. But you do deserve better. I'm not saying I'll care about you any less if you stay with him, but I might respect you less."

"Me, too," she said. One thing she could count on what the hard and honest truth from Logan. "I just need some time."

"Okay darlin', you know where to find me if you need me." He left her to her thoughts.

Rogue knew she had to kick Bobby to the curb, they were done. Someone who loves you should never hurt you that badly. They should never hurt you at all. Yet here she'd put up with pain at his hands, time and time again. Why? Because if she had left him, she'd be alone and didn't know if anyone else would want her. Who want to start a relationship with an untouchable woman? As soon as she thought it, she was even more pissed. Why had Bobby wanted to be with her in the first place? The answer was simple, he's cared about her. Or, she thought he had.

Rage jumped up in her, drowning her sadness. She was angry, no, she was pissed. How dare he? How dare he take advantage of her? How dare he make her feel like she could do no better? No, that was her fault, that was her settling. No more. She stalked to the other side of the garage, driven to action.

Gambit couldn't sit still any longer. He'd let Logan talk to her, then given her space when he'd said that's what she had asked for, but eventually he couldn't wait any longer. He popped down to the garage to see how she was doing, and had to keep himself from laughing out loud. There were engine parts in a pile in the middle of the floor, with Rogue under the hood of Bobby's car. She tossed another part behind her.

"What's dis?" Gambit asked.

"This is my breakup present to Bobby," Rogue called over her shoulder. Gambit grinned as she systematically dismantled Bobby's engine, piece by piece. "The deal is, I am going to hide every damn part. If he can find them all, I'll put it back together for him."

"Dat's generous, considering what he did."

Rogue snorted. "Not really. I'm giving you and Logan each a piece and I'm pretty sure you both will keep them from Bobby." Gambit laughed.

"Yo' can count on me." A few minutes later, Rogue threw the last engine piece rather roughly and turned. Gambit took in her red puffy eyes and tear stained face, and shaking constitution. "Oh chère…" He took the two steps and pulled her into him. Where with Logan she had silently cried with misery, she sobbed loudly and angrily into Gambit's shoulder, body wracking almost painfully.

"Goddammit!" she screamed. "Goddamn him!" What's wrong with me? No, I know what's wrong with me, I'm untouchable, and who would want that? But that's no excuse, that, that, that ass!"

Gambit rubbed her shoulders and held the back of her neck as she expelled every angry or self loathing thought. To his surprise, she let him hold her. When she pulled away, her face looked oddly empty.

"I'm done," she said. "This isn't my fault."

"No, it's not," Gambit agreed. "Want help hiding de engine parts?" A ghost of a smile flitted across Rogue's face.

"Sure."

She and Gambit spent the better part of the morning hiding the parts of Bobby's precious car's engine. Hiding places included the roof, garden, and Gambit ingenious little hidey hole in the hollow knot of a tree. She saved the alternator for Logan, the catalytic converter for Gambit and had Gambit hide the spark plugs inside the hollow curtain rod in Bobby's room. They finished up their sabotage when they ran into Bobby himself coming out of the kitchen.

"Rogue, there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" Bobby called. He marched toward her but she took a huge step back, putting her hand out.

"Have you? Because we've been around."

"Rogue, please, we need to talk," Bobby pleaded.

"So talk."

Bobby looked at Gambit. "Can we talk alone?"

"No. You forfeited any right to be alone with me when you cheated on me," Rogue said coldly.

"Rogue, it was an accident, I'm so sorry!" He moved toward her again.

"Don't touch me!"

Bobby froze again. "Rogue, every time I saw you with him-"

"Don't you dare blame this on my friendship with Gambit," she said, voice dangerously low.

"That drove me to it. I snapped! Plus you were being so cranky, especially lately…" He paused as Rogue's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Cranky? You want to know why I was cranky? Tell me Bobby, what was yesterday?"

"Uh, Thursday?"

"Our three year anniversary."

The weight of Rogue's words hit him. "Oh…" He'd cheated on her on their anniversary.

"I'm done with you Bobby. Maybe someday I'll find someone who actually loves me." She turned and walked the other way, but turned around a few feet off. "Oh, there's a note on the hood of your car that you probably want to read." She and Gambit left Bobby scrambling to the garage.

Dinner was an odd event. Bobby sat alone and often glanced over at Rogue who was sitting with Jubilee, Gambit, Kitty, and Pete. Jubilee didn't mention seeing a timing belt in the back of the fridge. Kitty didn't tough the plug wire taped to the bottom of the table. While officially, mutual friends continued to be mutual friends, it was obvious who they knew had screwed up. Bobby sat alone and unhappy, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he deserved it.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N It's finals week, so apparently that means I'm giving up studying for temporary relief of typing. Go figure.**

While some of the mansion's inhabitants were surprised that Gambit didn't immediately ask out Rogue, the vast majority understood what Bobby hadn't, that Gambit and Rogue were friends. While there was a certain level of attraction between them, what they were both consciously aware of and focusing on was their friendship. Gambit hadn't sabotaged Rogue's relationship, despite Bobby's insisting that he had.

Bobby was making little progress on his engine part scavenger hunt, not that he was putting in much effort. He bounced the idea off Pete of asking Rogue to replace the engine, but the look on his friend's face was enough for him not to pursue that. He also avoided Logan as much as possible, but found himself oddly scheduled for more and more danger room sessions with the pissed off Wolverine.

Rogue cut Bobby out of her life completely. If he was in the room she would either leave or more likely as time went on, just pretend he wasn't there. She devoted all her time to the classes she taught and sessions with Emma. She'd been going back and forth between feeling completely shattered, sure that her power would never be controlled, and feeling a stronger resolve than ever to gain control. This was extremely frustrating for Emma.

"You need to believe it Rogue. As much as I hate to agree with Gambit, he's right. You need to believe with every fiber of your being that this will happen."

Rogue nodded and closed her eyes, letting Emma dive into her mind. Emma swam to where she knew Rogue's mutation sat. It was the usual scene, everything was chaotic and disorganized. There was a particular large jumble of what Emma believed to be a representation of a literal ball of nerves, Rogue's anxiety. Pulling out, she looked at Rogue.

"I honestly think that your fear is feeding this problem more," Emma said. "So we're going to try something new. If we can work past this crippling fear, I believe we can find a way to move the active part of your mutation from the subconscious to your conscious mind."

"Okay," Rogue said. "I can't just say 'oh I'm over it' and that's that."

"I know," Emma said. "So I think you need practice."

"Practice?" Rogue asked warily.

"Someone you trust, probably Logan, to let you practice touching them."

"What?"

"You need to get over the fearing of hurting people," Emma said.

"It's not a fear, it's knowledge! I KNOW I'll hurt them and I don't want to!"

"And that fear is paralyzing you and the growth of your mutation. I believe you'll be able to control your abilities but you need to get over the fear."

"So I should just be okay with sucking the life out of people?"

"No," Emma said, forcing herself to be patient. "Touch gloved as much as possible. Handholding, anything like that. And once a week clear your mind as much as possible and touch skin to skin, two seconds, and let go."

"Won't that make it worse?"

"Humor me."

Rogue sighed, thanked Emma and left the office. She was so distracted that she barreled right into Logan. If it weren't for his quick reflexes, she'd have fallen right on her ass.

"Whoa darlin', what's the rush?"

"Sorry," she muttered and tried to move around him.

"Wait a minute, what's going on here?" Logan demanded. Rogue quickly explained everything Emma wanted and tried to get away again. "Hold it," Logan said, stopping her again. "I'm more than okay with that."

"You…what?

"Two seconds is enough to maybe make me mildly lightheaded. I'm not scared of it darlin', you shouldn't be either."

In a move that slightly surprised them both, Rogue threw her arms around Logan's neck in a huge hug. She pulled away with tears shining in her eyes and left without a word. Gambit was all for this plan too, offering to be one of Rogue's guinea pigs. She wasn't so sure considering he didn't have Logan's healing factor.

"I still heal fast, yo' remember how fast dat broken arm healed."

"Still…"

"Unless yo' are afraid of getting a piece of me inside yo'," Gambit said with a wink.

"Very worried," Rogue said with a laugh. "Thank you though, I might take you up on that."

"Bon."

"You know…I know you don't like Emma, and I'm not going to ask why, but maybe she'd be willing to help you with your amnesia. She's helped Logan clear up some of his foggy errant memories. She might be able to help you."

Gambit shrugged. Rogue sighed and went back to her book. Logan popped his head in, and they both were taken aback by the strain in his voice.

"War room, now."

Bewildered, they joined Jubilee, Emma, Kitty, Hank, Bobby, Pete, Loan and Storm who were already gathered. They pointedly sat far away from Bobby. Storm's face was full of tension, more so than Gambit had ever seen.

"There have been more mutant murders," she said shortly. "Eleven."

"The only reason we know about it now is some idealist reporter found out and ran a story."

"No one was looking into the murders and no one was issuing warnings. Kitty, you and Gambit are the best with computers and I have to ask something hard of you. Gambit, I know you have more experience hacking into government databases."

"I have no idea what yo' are talking about," Gambit muttered vaguely.

"So," Storm continued, "I need you to show and assist Kitty. You're looking in police and FBI databases, I want to know everything. This is unacceptable." She turned to the whole room. "No one goes anywhere alone. Groups of two or three, preferably more. All underage students will not leave the mansion unless accompanied by one of you." Eyebrows raised.

"This goes for every person in this room," Logan said. "Me, Storm, even you Gambit."

Gambit put his hands up in surrender. "No complaints here."

"Good, go."

Gambit spent the good part of the day teaching Kitty the ins and outs of hacking into government systems. He taught her how to cover her tracks, how to lay false trails and hide what they were doing. Kitty was sufficiently overwhelmed, but also more challenged and intrigued than by anything she'd ever learned.

They found next to nothing in the police database and absolutely nothing from the FBI. The police showed murders from Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, with no similarity other than the victims were all powerful mutants. Not that anyone was looking too hard.

Gambit, resigned to the idea that whoever was killing these mutants had also tried to kill him, finally decided to swallow his pride after almost four months. He knocked on Emma's door and awkwardly waited. He was rather amused at eliciting a surprised look from a telepath, but wisely chose to say nothing.

"What do you want?" she snapped. Gambit gritted his teeth. Doing this politely was going to be a lot more difficult than he'd imagined.

"I need help with my amnesia," he said, teeth still together.

"Oh?" she asked, eyebrow raised. She was determined to hear Gambit say that he needed her.

"I was hoping yo' would agree t' work wit' me t' recover de memories, since your sessions wit' Rogue seem t' help her." Gambit thoroughly thought he should be congratulated on making it through that sentence without losing the Chinese food he'd had with Rogue, Storm and Logan at lunch.

"So you're ready to stop being selfish and passive, and actually help yourself and the mutant community?" Emma asked nastily.

Gambit's jaw twitched. "Oui."

"Good," she said smugly. The next day he and Rogue started joint sessions with Emma sometimes as often as every other day. She didn't necessarily like pushing them or herself, but they felt an odd sense of urgency. Surprisingly Emma actually approved of the joint sessions. Since she didn't need to speak with either of them while she was delving into their minds, she had no problem letting them sit in each other's company, on the odd condition that they be holding hands. Emma believed this could only help Rogue be less afraid of touch, also that touch while Emma tried to push against the tangle that was Rogue's fear could only help.

This condition also had the added bonus of helping Gambit have something solid to hold on to while he opened his mind to Emma. Because of the nature of his mutation, Gambit had a basic shield around his mind that prevented a telepath from getting in, he had to let them in. Rogue's hand served as a helpful little focus.

Emma was pleased with the effect the joint sessions were having on Rogue. "The chaotic bundle, the representation of your fear is shrinking," she told them after a particularly hard session. "Not hugely, but there is a noticeable difference. You, though," she said, turning to Gambit. "You're making almost no progress at all."

"Hey! I've seen flashes!" Gambit argued. Emma scoffed.

"You are being deliberately difficult."

"Now what would dat accomplish?"

"Nothing, so stop it. And relax!"

"I'm going to go…" Rogue said and snuck out of the room, leaving the scene of the fight.

"Right, screaming always relaxes me," Gambit said with an eye roll. "Though I do like causing de screaming." He winked.

"You are impossible! You like the attention! That's why you aren't working harder. Or is bug bad Gambit afraid?"

"Go t' hell."

"That's it, isn't it?" Emma said, as if the possibility just dawned on her that Gambit even felt fear. "You're afraid? The great Gambit, afraid?"

"Happy?" he snapped. Emma looked at him considering as he stood to leave.

"Well," she said as he pulled open to door. "I'd think you were an idiot if you weren't afraid." Gambit paused before closing the door behind him.

The mood of the mansion was considerably dimmer than normal. The murders, and lack of information had taken a toll on every staff member. In order to lighten the mood, Gambit set up a pre-Christmas poker and old fashioned movie night. You were required to dress formally at least slightly and enjoy yourself.

Gambit tracked down an old film projector and got his hands on a copy of the original War of the Worlds, "not dis Tom Cruise, snoozey remake".

The turnout was better than Gambit had expected. Everyone, including Emma and Hank showed up. Though 'formal attire' seemed to have a different definition for everyone. Emma seemed to think it meant a tiny amount of sheer, flimsy white cloth while Logan's version of dressy was a flannel shirt with less holes than normal. Most took the dress code to heart though, Gambit and Pete in very dressy button up shirts and Hank in a full on tux.

Storm as well as Emma wore white, though her dress was infinitely classier. Jubilee to no one's surprise showed up in a funky canary yellow Roman-style gown. Kitty wore something sparkly and black, which apparently Pete approved of because he couldn't stop staring, causing a very noticeable blush to rise in Kitty's cheeks. It was Rogue who surprised everyone though. The expectation was a deep green long sleeved dress they'd seen her in multiple times. However, when she came down it was in a royal purple dress that vaguely had a renaissance type look to it. The dress was sleeveless and although she wore black gloves all the way up to her arm pits, the change was not unnoticed. Emma beamed triumphantly. The exposed neckline plus sleeves indicated progress in overcoming her crippling fear.

"Oh ma chère! Tue s tres jolie!" Gambit exclaimed, taking her hand and kissing it. Rogue smiled, nearly looking relaxed.

They all sat for the movie, Gambit passed around buckets of popcorn. Part way into the movie, Gambit snaked his arm around Rogue's shoulders, a move not unnoticed by Bobby. Emma also took note and though it still slightly irked her that he was Rogue's choice of friend and confidant, she was feeling a lot more charitable since it was helping Rogue. And it didn't hurt that she'd now glimpsed his vulnerable side. She hadn't even thought that had existed.

The movie ended much too quickly for Gambit's liking and he herded everyone to the shockingly large poker table. Much to his dismay, only Logan, Storm, and Rogue had ever played. He went through the basic rules of a five card draw, having to repeat them a few times when people got confused. He then sent Emma a scathing warning about using her powers to cheat.

"I have ethics," Emma said coldly. "And the skills to tune you all our, no matter how loudly you think."

"Okay den," Gambit said and passed out chips. "When you're out, you're out of de game. Last person standing wins."

"Gee, I wonder who that'll be," Jubilee muttered. Rogue smirked. As Jubilee had predicted, the pile of chips in front of Gambit grew steadily larger, while everyone else's shrunk. Logan was rather proud of Rogue's attitude toward Bobby. She didn't act angrily, but more as if he was a mildly irritating fly whose presence she'd merely accepted.

"Is there anything you're bad at?" Jubilee grumbled as she folded.

"No," Gambit said cheerily. Rogue and Logan called.

"I dunno, that mouth of his – "

Gambit interrupted Logan with, "My mouth gets things done very well, thank yo' very much." He winked at Rogue who rolled her eyes.

"On the topic…" Jubilee said.

"Never get Gambit on the topic," Logan muttered.

"How many women have you slept with?" she asked.

"A lot," Gambit said, and raised the bet.

"Supermodels?"

"A few," Gambit said. "Dey're not much fun though. Always worried about what dey're eating, how dey look, way too skinny."

"Celebrities?"

"My fair share."

"Any fantasies?"

"Natalie Portman," he said immediately. Logan, even Pete and Bobby gave an appreciative nod.

"So how many?" Jubilee asked.

Gambit gave her a tolerant smile. "A lot, dey had deir fun."

"Anyways!" Storm said, changing the subject.

Pete was the first one to lose all his chips, followed quickly by Bobby and Kitty, all who had some of the worst poker faces Gambit had ever seen. Jubilee followed and eventually the game was down to Gambit, Logan and Storm.

"What?" Storm asked to their surprised faces as she won a hand and pulled the pile of winnings toward her. "I've been friends with Remy for years, did you really think I hadn't picked anything up?"

Nevertheless, Gambit slowly chipped away at them until he was the sole holder of chips. "Good game my friends," he said cheerily. The rest of them grumbled. Kitty and Pete excused themselves to the kitchen to round up more food while Jubilee, Bobby, Hank and Emma put another movie on, this time the Wolfman. Rogue, Logan, Gambit and Storm began a game of blackjack.

Gambit's mission was successful, everyone was more relaxed than they'd been in weeks. There was laughter, jokes and even…romance? Rogue and Gambit had paused the game and entered the kitchen since Pete and Kitty hadn't returned with snacks and found the pair lip locked against the wall. Rogue gasped, jolting the two from their kiss. Turning red, they both started stuttering incoherently.

"We'll just leave yo' t' it, den," Gambit said with a wink. He steered the gaping Rogue out of the kitchen. "I think de night went rather well."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N So obviously my planned timeline is out the window. I've once again been ridiculously sick, think pink eye, flu, ear infections so bad I can't hear jack and pneumonia, and school is kicking me in the nose. Long story short, I'll do my best by let's be honest, it might take awhile. Positive note, I know what's going to happen! Mostly.**

The news that Kitty and Pete were now dating spread like napalm through the mansion. A few girls were disappointed that Pete was no longer available. The gossip seemed to linger longer than normal because they were both so reserved and secret about it. Everyone wanted a little nugget of information. When they realized they weren't going to get their wish, the gossip faded and people got used to the sight of them hand in hand. The community even got used to Gambit and Rogue constantly touching as somehow their sessions with Emma had become public knowledge. Bobby was still collecting parts from his engine and to everyone's surprise, he was actually making progress. Miniscule and barely recognizable progress, but progress nonetheless. Rogue wouldn't acknowledge his existence still even though a month and some odd days had passed.

To the mansion's collective surprise, Thanksgiving was coming up. Storm was wound up with renewed fears for the students' safety. What if something happened to the kids while they were home with their families? What about the kids who normally traveled alone? Storm's brain was spinning. Eventually, she decided to send a letter to the families who knew about the mutant aspects of the school, explaining the situation and that the students were welcome to stay for the break if that's what the parents wanted. Most parents, while thoroughly shocked and frightened, insisted the safest place for their children was at home and that they could protect them just fine. Luckily, most were willing to pick them up from the school so they didn't have to travel alone. Some parents were more worried and agreed to their children spending the holiday at school.

"What about the ones who travel alone and their parents don't know they're mutants?" Rogue asked.

"We only have a few in that situation luckily," Storm said heavily. "I think we'll just have to escort them all home. Teams of two." Rogue nodded in agreement. "Tell Kitty and Jubilee to remember to pass out the panic buttons before anyone leaves." Each student was being sent home with a little circle that had two buttons. One needed to be pushed once a day. If it wasn't, someone from the school would be calling. If it wasn't pushed after two days, the X-Men would come. The other button was a panic button, just in case. Someone students tried to be flippant about the new security measures, but a glare from Logan shut them up fast.

Classes were cut short a few days early to facilitate getting the students home safely. It took two days to escort all the students home who needed it. Finally, they were able to prepare for the most crowded Thanksgiving the school had seen in years. Gambit, of course, was relegated to the kitchen. Rogue and Kitty were his reluctant assistants.

"It's because we're girls, isn't it?" Kitty grumbled Thanksgiving morning, helping Rogue with the stuffing.

"It isn't," Rogue said calmly. "Would you rather it be Jubilee? Or Logan?"

A disgusted look painted Kitty's face. "Good point." Kitty opened her a mouth a few times in the next minute, but oddly no sound came out.

"You okay?" Rogue asked the next time this happened.

"Yes," Kitty said quickly. "Uhm, I was wondering, could I ask you guys something?"

Rogue and Gambit glanced at each other. "Of course," Gambit told her, mercifully not teasing her.

"Well, Pete and I have dinner reservations for tomorrow night and we were hoping you might come with us?" She said this all very fast, Rogue was even unsure at first what she'd asked.

"Are you sure?" Rogue asked her friend once Kitty repeated herself.

"Well the reservations are for four. Jubes was going to bring a date but that didn't quite work out…" That was an understatement. Jubilee and her almost-boyfriend Roger had had a very loud phone argument, ending in her telling him to eat something and stuff it somewhere that was all too graphic for the younger students to hear. Gambit had covered Rogue's ears in mock horror. "So you're the only other couple I know. I mean, I know you're not a couple couple, but you're the only two people we'd enjoy spending time with without it being awkward."

Rogue looked at Gambit again, which he knew to be her letting him take this one, asking him what he thought. He gave a shrug and nodded to her. "Sure Kitty," Rogue said. "It sounds nice."

"I love that nonverbal communication you guys can do!" Rogue and Gambit glanced at each other for a third time and Kitty lapsed into shrill giggles that they all attributed to her nervousness about the 'double date'. "Anyways, not super formal, but pretty dressy," Kitty told them.

"The things we do for friends," Rogue muttered.

They used the formal dining hall for Thanksgiving dinner in an attempt to get everyone into a festive mood. Gambit's meal was, not surprisingly, excellent. Even Bobby was, very grudgingly, impressed. He automatically tried to sit by Rogue as he always did on holidays and was annoyed to see Gambit sitting to her right, and Logan to her left. He sullenly stabbed at his food. Rogue was in great spirits and seemed not to notice.

They were all reasonably sleepy fairly early in the night and despite a few stragglers, the majority of the mansion's inhabitants headed to bed early. Rogue and Gambit were left to relax while those who hadn't helped with dinner cleaned up.

"Time, chère," Gambit said.

"What?" she asked, distracted. She was sitting next to Gambit on one the couches, using him as a leg rest and pouring over a new book.

"You've practiced on Logan, can't procrastinate any longer." Rogue's eyes had stopped moving and were fixed on a picture of a former vice president. "You need de practice."

"I don't want to hurt you," she said, not looking up at him. The echo of what she'd said to Bobby well over a year ago rattled around her head. She was very aware of how wrong that went, too.

"I'm pretty hard t' hurt." She didn't mention that when she first met him, he had been bleeding. "Emma said yo' need t' be comfortable with more dan one person."

Rogue frowned. "I can't believe you're relying on Emma's logic."

Gambit smiled. "Me neither, actually." He held his hand out. Reluctantly, Rogue sat all the way up and took off her glove. She hesitated before slowly reaching out, those black on red eyes burning into hers all the while. She brushed his fingertips with hers before grabbing his hand.

_Gambit was dancing to a slow, romantic song while he was wrapped around a leggy blonde. She whispered in his ear. He laughed richly and kissed her._

_There were men surrounding Gambit. His eyes flashed magenta. "Mes amis, dis is hardly fair." With a flurry of magenta light, they all dropped. He walked away calmly without a word._

_A man with his face covered handed Gambit a wad of cash. Gambit quickly slid it out of sight, mentally cursing the other man for his lack of stealth. The man nodded to Gambit before disappearing into the shadows. Gambit's heart beat uneasily. He tried to dismiss it as indigestion, but he knew that was a lie. He would have to look a little deeper into his employer. Damn._

_He was barely breathing, he could feel his arm hanging at an unnatural angle, sending shocks of pain through him. Blood dripped into his eyes and he tried to blink them away, no strength left to wipe it from his head. He rang the doorbell again, hoping against hope that Storm would let him in. He needed to let them know, they needed to know…_

_He walked as this girl, Rogue, walked away from him, paying extra attention to the way her hips moved within her jeans as she stepped. Feisty…sounded fun. _

Rogue gasped as she let go, coming back to reality. Gambit slumped a bit to the side, taking a minute or so to recover. Rogue fought to not feel guilty or evil. Gambit patted her shoulder as soon as he had oriented himself.

"Don't worry chère, I'm fine, just a bit drained."

"You sure?"

"Oui." He looked at her curiously. "What'd yo' see?"

"Who's the blonde lady in the red and black dress?" she asked. Gambit kept his face carefully blank.

"I'm not sure. Dere have been lots of ladies, in dresses or not."

Rogue raised a eyebrow. "Sure."

Gambit sighed. He couldn't be mad at her for seeing that, he all but made her absorb him. Plus, she'd shared some of her deepest problems, fears, and insecurities, it'd be pretty awful of him to not answer her something so simple. "Her name is Belladonna. We were…engaged."

"You were engaged?" Rogue asked, stunned.

"Oui, her frère took exception to dat. T' avoid war wit' de guilds, we broke it off. Ironic, since it was supposed to unite us in de first place. She was a member of de Assassins Guild," he added to her confused expression.

"Oh," Rogue said, eyebrows still high. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Gambit waved her away. "It was a long time ago."

"Some things stick with you, though."

"Oui," Gambit conceded. He looked at her, a considering look on his face. "But sometimes, yo' find something more important." Rogue tilted her head to the side but before he let her question that, he pressed on. "Anything else yo' saw?"

"Um, you kicked some mutant-hating ass, distrusted an employer, came to our doorstep, totally bleeding and broken, and stared at my ass," Rogue said.

Gambit chuckled. "Sounds about right."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Look at the, updates so close together! Be still my heart! It's finally showing signs of spring so it's easier to be cheery and easier to feel like typing up chapters, woo hoo!**

By the time Kitty, Pete, Rogue and Gambit's 'double date' rolled around the next say, the mansion's gossip-meter had reached seismic levels. Rogue, annoyed, finally gave up on denying the rumors and simply ignored the looks and questions. Gambit on the other hand seemed rather amused by the whole thing and went along with everyone's jokes, until Logan came up to him in the hall. The students all suddenly remembered that they needed to be somewhere else and cleared out.

"Hello Logan," Gambit said somewhat warily.

"We need to talk, Gumbo," he said darkly.

"Whatever about?" Gambit asked, hand curling around a card in his pocket.

"About this date with Rogue."

"I don't know what yo' mean," Gambit answered.

"Don't play dumb with me," Logan growled. "You aren't going to do anything romance related or I swear-"

"You'll take romance lessons from me and use dem on Storm?" Gambit danced out of Logan's reach and out the front door. Logan later cornered Rogue and gave her his version of the sex talk, which solidly terrified her. There were threats of torture involved.

Kitty dragged Rogue to her room early that afternoon before their 'date', insisting that they should get ready together. Kitty chatted away, voice getting higher and higher until Rogue has to shake her to remind her to get a grip. Kitty twirled in front of Rogue wearing a black strapless dress with a very high slit up the side. Combined with her makeup and simple jewelry, the effect was stunning. Kitty looked startlingly gorgeous and very adult. Close to when they needed to leave, there was a knock on Kitty's door. They opened it, with some confusion, to see Emma in the doorway. She promptly pushed her way into the room.

She looked Rogue up and down. "No," she said.

"Excuse me?" Rogue asked. Emma circled her like a vulture and stared critically at the woman's dress. Rogue wore a long, deep green dress with long sleeves that very much brought to mind a renaissance princess.

"No," Emma repeated. "I know where you're going and you aren't wearing that."

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Rogue asked, indignant. Emma ignored this and took the garment bag from over her arm and laid it on the bed. Rogue eyed it and was unsure if anything Emma owned would be suitable for anything other than a Playboy shoot.

"I'll pretend that I didn't hear that," Emma said. Kitty blushed, making Rogue believe they were thinking along the same lines. Emma opened the bag and held the dress up in front of Rogue.

"I don't think so."

"Yes," Emma said calmly. "You can still wear the gloves but you need this dress."

"Emma, there's too much skin! What if someone touches me?"

"They shouldn't be touching you anyways," Emma answered. "This would help you, I'm not trying to use you as a living doll for kicks and giggles you know." Rogue glared. Emma sighed and set the dress down. "To help you relax and unblock yourself, yeah this will help. You need to stop separating yourself from others as if you aren't good enough for or don't deserve happiness."

"I don't think that."

"Yes you do. Wear what you want." Emma moved to the door. "If you're going to fight me on little things like this, work on your powers is going to go very slowly." Emma swept out of the room. She wasn't a fool, she knew that this wasn't a small thing to Rogue, but by making it seem like less of a big deal than it was, maybe Rogue would believe so, too. Also she'd basically just challenged Rogue and everyone knew Rogue loved a challenge.

She marched through the school and found Gambit sitting on a balcony overlooking the garden, smoking a cigarette. Emma wrinkled her nose but pressed on. She leaned against the railing he was sitting on, giving a generous look of her cleavage. Gambit glanced with a raised eyebrow before going back to his illusion of solitude.

"Gambit," she greeted. He nodded in acknowledgement, surprising her with the lack of comment about her state of dress. "Be good tonight."

"And what do yo' mean by dat?"

Emma turned and stepped closer, her body brushing against him. She brushed her lips against his ear. Gambit froze, eyebrows nearly to his hairline. She pushed her breasts against him and set her hand on his thigh then bit gently on his ear. He roughly pushed her away by the shoulders and jumped backwards, almost in terror. Emma smiled triumphantly.

"Like I said, be good. Don't be distracted by other women because let's be honest, we all know where your heart really lies and it isn't in someone like me."

"No kidding," Gambit said, still alarmed. Emma smirked and walked away. When she'd severely shocked Gambit, he'd projected one thought so loudly that she picked it up through his shield. That though fairly jumbled, basically screamed _No, Rogue! What would she think? _Feeling very proud of herself, she nearly waltzed back to her room. She was used to meddling in people's lives to confuse and otherwise torment, but this meddling for positive purposes, this was new. And she was having entirely too much fun.

Emma's words stuck with both Rogue and Gambit. By the time Pete and Gambit were sitting in the rec room waiting for Kitty and Rogue, Pete wasn't the only one a little nervous. Both were dressed in dressy black pants and shoes, Gambit with a nice black shirt, Pete with white. Kitty popped in wearing the black dress and silver heels and Pete hastily jumped up to greet her. Chuckling, Gambit stood too and turned to see Rogue standing the doorway. Gambit was momentarily frozen in shock and dropped the four of diamonds he was twirling in his fingers.

Rogue's hair was pulled back into an elegant knot behind her head. She had followed Emma's advice and worn the other dress. It was a deep royal purple and in a halter style, leaving much of her back, shoulders, and neckline bare. Simple makeup, gloves and black shoes completed the look. Kitty was psotively gleeful at the dumbfounded expression on Gambit's face. The only coherent thoughts forming were' beautiful beautiful', 'wow', and for some reason, 'I'm glad I didn't wear my magenta shirt, we would have clashed horribly'.

"I know it's a little much," Rogue said uncomfortably, very aware that no one had said anything in a long time. "But Emma thought…"

"Non, non ma chère! Tu es trés jolie," Gambit started to ramble away in French. "Désolé." He walked to her, took her hand firmly in his and said, "Emma's right, it's perfect."

Kitty let out a series of shriek-like giggles, causing the others to look around in alarm. She covered her mouth, a few giggles still slipping through. Slightly disturbed, Pete led Kitty out to the car. Amused. Rogue and Gambit followed.

The restaurant was nicer than any place Rogue had ever been. The waiters were all in tuxes and were the most awkwardly polite people she'd met. When they were waiting for their table, Gambit was a little worried, she kept fidgeting, jumping whenever anyone came within ten feet of her. Gambit, with his partially fingered gloves, put his hand on her bare back, making sure the gloved part only touched her, and strolled her back. The first time he tried this, she jumped so high she nearly fell out of her seat.

"It's okay," Gambit assured her. "Gloved, I won't get absorbed." She glared, but when the next person stepped a little too close and he rubbed her back, she flinched less. And the next time, she actually relaxed. "We have a secluded table, we can sit wit' our back t' de wall," he promised.

"Okay," Rogue said.

"Okay?" he asked, surprised. He expected a little more panic from her.

"Yeah," Rogue said. "I mean, yeah it's a bit terrifying that something might happen, but this actually is a little fun. I thought I'd just hyperventilate and pass out, but it's actually a little enjoyable."

"Good," Gambit said. "Dat's de whole point."

The polite waiter came and told them their table was ready. As the followed, Rogue couldn't help but feel like she was following a penguin. As promised, she and Gambit sat against the wall with Kitty and Pete across from them. Rogue and Gambit had been worried it'd be awkward, but it turned out that outside the mansion, Pete and Kitty were a lot more relaxed about their relationship. Which made sense, since there were no 12 year olds here throwing paper airplanes at them.

After the appetizers of their five course meal (Gambit instructed them in five course etiquette) one of the overly polite waiters presented Kitty and Pete with an expensive bottle of champagne. Kitty teared up and missed Gambit give Pete a wink and thumbs up. Rogue managed to turn her laugh into a rather violent cough.

Around dessert time, Kitty and Pete started getting mushy. Gambit jerked his head and he and Rogue excused themselves for a walk, leaving the lovebirds to be gooey alone. Surprisingly, the night was a reasonably warm instead of frigid, so they actually did end up taking a walk. It wasn't a sketchy area of town, not that it mattered much to their safety if it was, but it made it nicer to walk.

Rogue was content with the silence, but she was a bit curious. She hadn't noticed it until now but when she thought about it, he had been unusually quiet by Gambit standards all evening. He'd been busy, trying to put her at ease, and she'd been too nervous to notice his quietness. Guilt swelled inside her.

"Remy?" she asked.

"Oui?" he asked. He glanced behind them.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"What makes yo' ask dat?"

"You're quiet and seem…uncomfortable. Are you okay?"

"Oui," he assured her. "I'm not uncomfortable wit' yo', chère, don't misunderstand. I am…anxious."

"Why?"

"I am always anxious when I am out of de mansion," he found himself saying. Unsure why he was telling her this, though not too disturbed, he continued. "Until I know what happened t' me and who's responsible, I feel safer in a less open area."

"That's understandable," Rogue said softly.

"I thought so." Gambit got a mischievous look on his face and wrapped his arms around Rogue, cuddling in. "But dis way I get my strong Roguey t' protect me."

Rogue laughed and almost didn't wince when he touched her. He took her hand in his and they continued down the street. It wasn't turning out to be a bad night for a walk.

Everyone was asking the next morning about Rogue and Gambit's date, as well as Kitty and Pete's. The school's love of gossip manifested at the most random times, though the worst was when a student came up to Kitty and Rogue asking if they men kissed them with tongue. Storm had to make an announcement declaring that the private lives of teachers were not open to discussions, which of course just fueled the rumors of her involvement with Logan further. Exasperated and tired of handing out detentions, she decided to just let it run its course.

Emma was frighteningly delighted by the whole date affair. When she looked into their minds and saw the event, Rogue's eventual relaxation and even Gambit's openness, she chalked it up to immense progress. Gambit thought this was a bit of an overstatement considering no memories of his were back, though he admitted his excitement about Rogue's comfort level. During their next session Emma had Rogue practice touching Gambit bare skinned, something she was almost used to by now. Rogue touched him, absorbing a memory of him demolishing some old man at poker, before lettering go. It took a few seconds longer to start to absorb him and Gambit was barely even dizzy. As soon as looked, Emma beamed at them.

"What?"

"You're so close, Rogue," Emma said.

"I am?"

"Your absorption of Gambit is getting slower and slower, and some of that is due to your comfort with him, but that's the point. You learn with comfortable and safe situations and then apply that to the rest of your life," Emma said.

"I'm a safe situation?" Gambit asked with an amused smirk. Emma almost managed to control the withering glare she sent his way.

"You really think I'm close?" Rogue asked, daring to let her hope slip through a little bit.

"Absolutely. It's just a matter of finding what exactly works, like flexing the right muscle. Also, your fear is still blocking. You need to give it up," Emma said kindly.

"I know."

"What's the biggest thing holding you back besides hurting people? Which actually isn't your main fear anymore since you've accepted that you're learning to not hurt others. What is the fear holding you back?"

Rogue shifted in her seat.

"I can leave," Gambit offered.

"No, it's okay," Rogue said. "It's…it's the echoes."

"Of the people you absorb?" Emma asked.

"Yeah."

"Dey're just echoes chère, shadows of de minds of others," Gambit assured her.

"It's that…what if…what if my mind is like a bowl? What happens when there's no more room and they start to overflow? Will there be any of me left?"

Emma leaned forward and actually took one of Rogue's gloved hands in hers. "Trust me on this Rogue, the mind is my specialty. That's not how it works. Your particular mind is very unique with seemingly infinite storage capacities that from what I'm seeing aren't diminishing any time soon. And if it becomes a problem, I'll help extract what needs pruning."

"You can take the personalities out?" she asked eagerly.

"It's dangerous," Emma said. "I won't do it unless it's absolutely necessary. Relax, Rogue, you're almost there."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Another update? Well aren't you just spoiled.**

There was still no news on the mutant murders, though the deaths seemed to taper off a bit. Or they were better hidden. Emma didn't pick up anything from Cerebro about the murders, but she did manage to sense a mutant rapidly growing in power. Storm took Rogue with her to talk to the girl, hoping Rogue's kind demeanor would be comforting, but also to show Rogue she was confident in her. They took the jet down to Florida to meet the 16 year old, Camille.

Rogue and Storm dressed casually instead of in X-Men uniforms, walked up to the well manicured lawn to the small cottage on the outskirts of Tampa. Storm knocked on the door and frowned when there was no response. She knocked again and again and the door finally opened. Rogue and Storm just stood there with their jaws open. Standing in the doorway with a cocky grin was Pyro.

"J-John?" Rogue asked. ""What're you doing here?"

"Just visiting," he said casually. "Same as you."

"Where's Camille?" Storm asked, pushing her way into the house. She walked through the small house but they were the only three there.

"She's safe, probably as safe as she'd be with you," he said. He kicked back on the couch, completely at ease though Rogue noticed a tightness in his eyes.

"John," Rogue said slowly. "Are you okay?"

"Fabulous," he answered.

"And Magneto?"

John just smiled. "Nice try."

"John, Camille's an innocent girl…" Storm started.

"Relax Storm," he interrupted. "Consider me a messenger, I was sent to explain. We asked if she wanted to come and learn about her powers. We're like a school now, like you. Just trying to help. Consider us a Brotherhood changed. We turned over a new leaf."

Rogue snorted. "I can't really believe that," she said. "Last time we heard from you, it was about a violent, murderous rampage, remember?"

John winced and the tightness remained. "Consider this our version of going green," he said. "Buckethead says he learned his lesson and is avoiding that kind of public crap."

"Yeah, he says," Storm snorted with contempt. John just shrugged.

"I'm told what I'm told. We just want to advance mutant-kind. Less…messily than last time." Rogue and Storm just stared at him. "Well, tell Bobby hi." He saw the muscle in Rogue's jaw twitch and his smile turned to a frown.

"Tell him yourself. Or kick him, whatever works," Rogue said impassively.

"Oh no, what'd Bobby do now?" John asked.

"None of your business," Rogue said.

"Okay, okay," John said, throwing his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Well, congrats on finally kicking that wimp to the curb, maybe now you can find a man who actually has a set."

"Are you done?" Storm asked.

"Yep," John said and stood. "We're trying to be peaceful here, just passing along the message."

"By kidnapping people?"

"What? No! She came because we explained we could help her, isn't that what you guys kept trying to get us to do with the whole mutant school sales pitch? We're just trying to do the same. Run along home now. And give Bobby a kick in the nads for me, will ya?" John turned to leave.

"Wait, John!" Rogue called after him.

"Yes my dear?"

"Look, there has been a rash of mutant murders. We don't know who did it but they've all been powerful and violent. Just keep yourself and your people safe ok?"

"Wow," John said. "Seriously? Who'd be able to kill that many without leaving a trace?"

"We don't know," Storm said.

"Wow…yeah, I'll pass it on. Stay safe, too." John saluted them and hopped on his waiting motorcycle and sped off. Rogue looked at Storm.

"Uh, what just happened?"

They got incredulous looks when they shared what happened. "They're recruiting?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, that explains why the Brotherhood's been so quiet," Storm said.

"Do we know how many they've convinced?" Kitty asked.

"Emma's checking into it, I'm not sure how we'll know either way though," Storm said.

"Do what do we do?" Gambit asked.

"I have no idea," Storm said.

"They say they're doing it for _peace?_" Pete asked.

"Bullshit," Logan said. "We all know that's a load of crap. The Brotherhood is about terrorism and fear and death, ain't nothing going to change that."

"It's weird, John seemed pretty convinced," Rogue said.

"Then he's being lied to," Logan said. "We all know what Magneto wants and what he is. Nothing will change that."

They filed out, Rogue contemplating whether or not the take John's words seriously and kick Bobby in the nads. Luckily for Bobby, Gambit walked up to Rogue right then and pulled her out for lunch. Gambit took her hand in his, winked over her shoulder at Bobby and marched away. Over the next month, Emma found three more mutants that decided to go to the Brotherhood. Storm was about ready to tear her hair out.

Rogue and Gambit started training their class more advanced techniques and luckily, their problem kid Johnny kept in line.

"We're going to have to teach them something harder eventually," Rogue pointed out.

"I could give yo' something harder," Gambit said with a wink. Rogue rolled her eyes.

"Nice try."

"In all seriousness though, and sexual innuendos aside," Gambit said, cleaning his bo-staff, "maybe we should go out."

"Go out?" Rogue repeated absentmindedly, thoughts still on the class.

"Oui. Well we already did de nice dinner, long walk and all dat." Rogue looked around at him, unsure if she was really hearing this from him. "We should go and do something else. Maybe we could go rock climbing, or dey're dis great festival coming downtown." Gambit's voice was casual, but his pulse was dancing the tango in his neck. Why had he said that? He hadn't been planning on asking her out yet. Sure he'd wanted to, nothing possessed his mind quite like her, but he wasn't planning on asking now. It just popped out.

"You're…asking me out?" Rogue asked slowly. Gambit mentally kicked himself. He was not living up to his suave reputation.

"Oui," he said. "Seems like de right thing t' do."

"Well," Rogue said walking to stand in front of him. "I'm going to need a better reason than 'it's the right thing to do'."

"Come again chère?"

"Well the normal reasons people ask others out are things like they're attracted to them or like them or something like that," Rogue said, staring into those black and red eyes. "So I'm afraid that after Bobby, I'll need a better reason than 'it seems like the right thing to do'."

"Ah," Gambit said, comprehension drawing. "Dat isn't how I meant dat t' sound at all. By saying it seems like de right thing t' do, I meant it seemed natural for us t' do, it's automatic, you can't deny dat." He stood so the lines of their bodies were nearly touching. Rogue felt as though they were charged and little shocks of electricity jumped between them. "You know dat dere's something here, something between us. And if we don't explore dis, I'll regret it later."

"Remy, I…" Rogue stuttered. She hadn't known what she expected, but t it hadn't been this.

"Give me a chance ma chèrie. Give me a chance t' show yo' how a real man treats a woman." He took her hand in his, stroking her gloved knuckles. "Let me prove t' yo' dat dere are real men dat treat dey're woman right. Give a chance, please."

Rogue stared at him for a second before smiling nervously. "You know you are one of my closest friends…"

"I know."

"I don't want anything to ruin that."

"It won't," Gambit promised. "I care about yo' nothing will change dat. If anything, it's going to get better." He waited, all but holding his breath.

"I can't…you know, touch you…"

"Oh chère," he said. "You know I'm not worried about dat. I'm touching yo' right now."

"You know what I mean."

"I do," he said. "I also know dat I'm interested in yo' for more dan your touching abilities." There was silence.

Then, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay. Remy LeBeau you can take me on a date."

Logan was less than thrilled by this turn of events. While he was all for Gambit helping Rogue with her powers, but dating her? That was just a little too close for comfort.

"You break her heart, I break your legs," Logan promised him.

"I would expect nothing less," Gambit said calmly.

When word spread Bobby was even less enthusiastic than Logan. He was still searching for engine parts courtesy of Rogue and Gambit, so when he found out they were going out that weekend.

"So it's true?" Bobby stormed to Rogue and Gambit in the hallway.

"Excuse me?" Rogue asked.

"It's you two? I told you Rogue, I told you he was going to try to get you from me!" Bobby said.

"We've been broken up for over two months and you cheated on me. Gambit did nothing wrong," Rogue said calmly. Bobby turned bright red and stormed away.

"Dat creepy obsessive stuff is getting old."

"Little bit."

"I don't suppose blowing him up again would help?" Gambit offered.

"Probably not," Rogue said. "Maybe next time."

"Too bad. Tomorrow it'll be just yo' and me, and no need t' worry about de silly ex." Rogue laughed.

"We don't need to worry about him anyways. He isn't really who's on my mind."

"Oh would dat be me den?"

Rogue smiled. "Maybe."

True to his word, Gambit didn't take her to another plain dinner.

"This better not be rock climbing," Rogue said warningly from the passenger seat of the car.

"Why?" Gambit asked with a laugh.

"Because you're a jumped up acrobat, total unfair advantage," Rogue said. Gambit laughed again.

"Well no, no rock climbing."

Rogue couldn't get another word out of him on the matter and it wasn't until he stopped the car that she saw where they were. She grinned.

"The zoo?"

"I'm appealing t' your inner child," he said smartly. Rogue followed him in and went along with great amusement as he dragged her right to the penguins.

"Look at dem swim!" he said, pointing to a pair engaged in what seemed to be an energetic game of tag. Rogue grinned.

"Penguins your favorite?" she asked.

"Oui," Gambit said happily. "What do yo' want t' see?"

"Bats," Rogue said promptly. "Nocturnal house."

"Bats eh?"

"Hey, bats are cute!"

"Dey're flying rats," Gambit said, pulling her into the nocturnal house.

"Says the swamp rat," Rogue muttered. "Shut up and look at the animals." Rogue hadn't really considered what going into a dark room with Gambit would mean, but she was discovering the oddest tingling sensation whenever his body came close to hers. She nearly jumped out of her skin when he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Yo' okay?"

"Fine," she said, trying her hardest to remain calm. She was certain he could hear her heat beat. She let him keep his arm around her through the rest of the nocturnal house and throughout the rest of the grounds. As for Gambit, only half of his mind was on the wildlife, the other half stayed solidly focused on Rogue for the rest of the day.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N Here we go again ladies and germs. Reviews are appreciated.**

Rogue expected rumors about her and Gambit to explode, but end of the semester stress seemed to have grabbed the mansion. Students were cramming for finals and struck with thoughts of going home for Christmas. Teachers had to reprimand students more than once. Only Logan wasn't having disciplinary problems, thought when Gambit blew up a pencil, his students started paying more attention.

"Dis is ridiculous," Gambit said to Storm as they tried once again to figure out an easy way to safely get everyone home. "We can get everyone home but we can't protect dem once dey're dere."

"I know," Storm said, running a hand over her face. "But we can't refuse to let them leave either. We'll just have to do the best we can."

Gambit just sighed. He was right. It was another week long endeavor shuffling students home and giving them all the panic communicators. When Rogue and Logan returned from shuffling the last kids home, even Logan looked tired.

"I'll see you guys later," Rogue muttered.

"Where yo' going chère?"

"I need a nap, I'm exhausted."

"Take me wit' yo'?" Gambit suggested with an eyebrow waggle. Logan growled.

"Nice try," Rogue said. Gambit kissed the top of her head and she turned, nearly staggering up the stairs.

"Why's she so exhausted lately?" Logan asked. Gambit winked and Logan. "Cajun…"

"Relax. Emma said it's something t' do wit' learning t' control her powers. She's getting closer and it's take a lot of out her," he said.

"I hope so," Logan said.

Gambit was starting to get worried, despite Emma's assurances that Rogue was fine. It wasn't like her to be lacking energy, but he did notice she was taking longer and longer to absorb him and the absorptions were weaker.

All the adults were staying at the mansion over the break, just in case any of the students needed help. Gambit's family wasn't thrilled.

"_Remy Etienne LeBeau_!"

"I know Mercy," Gambit said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was holding the phone a foot away from his ear and could still hear his angry sister in law.

"_You weren't back for Thanksgiving either!_"

"It's not safe for the kids or for yo' guys!"

Mercy snorted derisively. "Like anyone could get to you or us here."

"I don't know who dese people are. I don't want t' put yo' in danger," Gambit said seriously.

"_Remy…_"

"I'll make it up t' yo' Mercy. I promise. Just…no dis year." Gambit hung up and sighed. He hated missing holidays with his family. He leaned back on his bed.

"I'm sorry," Rogue said from the doorway. "I know you wanted to see them."

"Oui," Gambit sighed. He held his arm out to her and she crossed the room. Crawling on his bed, she curled next to him under his arm, careful to not accidently absorb him. He absently ran his hand up and down her arm, fingers tracing abstract patterns. After a few minutes, Rogue began to fully lean on him, relaxing inch by inch. Gambit was shocked when her breathing started to even out. She was almost to the edge of sleep when she jerked awake, heart beating way too fast.

"Sorry," she said quickly, making a move to sit up. Gambit clamped his arm around her and eased her back down.

"Whoa where yo' going? Nothing t' be sorry for. Sleep happens t' de best of us, yo' know. Though if you fall asleep dis Saturday I might take offense."

"Saturday? Christmas eve?" Rogue asked.

"Dat's de day."

"And why am I not allowed to sleep on Christmas Eve?"

"Because we have plans," Gambit said.

Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Oh we do?"

"Oui," Gambit said satisfied. Rogue laughed.

"And where are we going?"

"Dere's a club dat's having a genuine N'Awlins jazz band. Dey're very good, I've seen dem at home. I think we should go."

"You asking me on a date, LeBeau?" Rogue teased.

"Strange concept isn't it?" Gambit answered. "Though if they didn't count as dates before, we've been doing something seriously wrong." Rogue laughed. "I would love t' see de look on Logan's face if he walked in right now."

Rogue paled at bit. "No cruel jokes, Cajun."

Logan did growl when he saw the dress Rogue was wearing to the concert. "What the hell is that?" he demanded, circling Rogue in her pale grey dress and Gambit in black. The dress was backless and though she paired it when a coat, she felt especially daring.

"That's two thousand dollar silk," Emma said from behind him. "And it's mine, so think twice about that little idea you have about shredding it. You break it you buy it." Logan growled.

"Never knew yo' wanted t' get Rogue naked before me."

"BEFORE you?"

"Time t' go," Gambit said. He grabbed Rogue's hand and rushed her out while Emma grabbed a telepathic hold on Logan.

"Since when do you conspire with Gumbo?"

Rogue laughed as Gambit drove them away from the mansion. "You do have a death wish," she said.

"Of course not," Gambit said. "Dat would be silly. I just like t' antagonize Logan."

"You like to antagonize a man named Wolverine with six metal claws? Yeah, okay."

The club wasn't as packed as rogue expected considering it was Christmas Eve. Three quarters of the tables were full. Gambit managed to get them a secluded table, very close to the front of the stage. It was hot enough and they were far enough away from anyone else that he even convinced her to shed the long jacket.

Rogue fought Gambit about what food they'd eat. He insisted it was an authentic band so they should order Cajun food and complete the experience. Rogue patted his hand.

"Okay Remy? You know I care about you, but you have me here in public, in this ridiculous dress, listening to your choice in music, which I'm all fine with. But if you try to keep me from eating a cheeseburger, I'll break your teeth," she said.

Gambit grinned and kissed the back of her hand. "Dat's my girl."

Rogue got her cheeseburger. Gambit ordered something she'd never heard of, but she wasn't too curious as long as his fingers kept away from her fries. He took her gloved hand in his as the main band began to play on the small stage. One of them saluted Gambit and he nodded back.

"You know him?" Rogue asked.

"Oui," Gambit said. "I've helped him out of a jam a few years ago. And I appreciate good music."

Rogue had to admit she liked the music. Gambit's leg was bouncing happily along to the bass line under the table. She grinned at his enthusiasm then felt a pang of sadness for him. This was as close to New Orleans as he was going to get, as close to home as was possible without putting any of his family in danger. She squeezed his hand. He glanced over and squeezed back, a slightly confused look on his face before his attention returned to the stage.

About an hour in, the band's front man addressed the room. "Well den, New York does have some people with good taste after all!" The crowd laughed. "Well we're very honored dat yo' chose t' spend your Christmas Ever listen t' us tinker away on dese instruments. We have a few more t' play for yo' but here is one dedicated t' all yo' silly people in love." He turned to look directly at Rogue and Gambit. "M'sieur LeBeau and de beautiful lady with yo', we send dis out for yo." Rogue looked at Gambit startled, as the band struck up a slower tune.

"Don't look at me," he said. "I didn't tell dem t' do dis."A few couples were taking to the dance floor. "Shall we?"

"I don't know…" Rogue said uncomfortably.

"Chère," Gambit said quietly. He ran two gloved fingers lightly over her bare shoulder. "I promise I won't let anything happen. Just let yourself relax."

Rogue bit her lip nervously, and Gambit was momentarily worried that she'd refuse him, but she broke into a grin and took his hand, following him onto the dance floor. He pulled her right up to him, the front of her body pressed right against his and she was suddenly very aware that the backless dress had prevented her from wearing a bra. One of Gambit's hands snaked around her lower waist resting on her very lower back, right where the silver grey cloth started. He took her hand in his other and they started slowly moving to a jazzy rendition of 'O Holy Night'.

"This was always one of my favorites," Rogue admitted.

"Really?" Gambit asked, glancing down at her. "I've always liked it, too." Rogue smiled and they continued their elegant movements. When Gambit could tell they were nearing the end of the song, he took the chance he'd been waiting for. "So Rogue, it takes yo' what, ten seconds before yo' start t' absorb me?"

"Something like that," Rogue said as Gambit delicately twirled her.

"So, I was thinking I want t' try something."

"Uh, what?"

Instead of answering, he took her bewildered face in his hands and pulled her in. He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her, running fingers along her jaw line. She froze at first, but in his surprise she kissed him back instead of slapping him. Her lips were just as soft as he'd imagined. He counted to ten before pulling away. She stared up at him, green eyes wide and stunned.

"Please don't be mad chère, I just wanted-"

"Shut up for a second," Rogue said. She frowned slightly and whispered. "I got it…Remy, I got it!"

"Rogue?" Before he could ask anything else, Rogue ripped her elbow length gloves off and grabbed his hand. Nothing. She nearly squealed and threw herself at him, kissing him as if she'd never get another chance. She barely registered the trumpet wailing in the background or the front man jovially proclaiming, "That's love, everybody!"

Logan was still riled up hours later when he heard Gambit's car pull up. He growled and stood, marching to the door. He hadn't expected it to burst open in his face. He had to jump back and even then only barely avoided being smacked into by a very excited Rogue.

"Logan!" she shrieked.

"Yeah, kid?" he asked warily.

"Logan I got it!"

"Got it?" he asked blankly.

"Yeah I've got it!" She ran up and thrust her bare hand at him. Confused, he reached out and took it. He stared at her in astonishment as she grinned. There was no pull, no tell tale signs of energy leaving him, nothing. He looked over her head at Gambit, all the terrible possibilities of what they could get up to together flashed through Logan's mind. Gambit seemed to recognize this because he put a huge smile on his face and pointed forcefully at Rogue who was still staring at Logan, waiting for his reaction.

"Congrats kid," he said. Rogue grinned and threw her arms around him. He hugged her back, palms against her skin. She shivered and pulled away, grinning p at him. "Seriously, good job, how'd you do it?"

"Yeah, I was wondering that myself," Emma said, waltzing into the room.

"You were right," Rogue said excitedly. "It was like a muscle. Well, it's like retractable fangs, and it was a matter of finding the right muscles to control them."

Emma grinned triumphantly as Logan spun Rogue around in circles. Gambit came to stand next to her. "Yo' seem please," he said to her. She glanced at him before turning her attention back to Rogue who was now dancing rather enthusiastically with Logan.

"I am," she confirmed. "Not only have I helped Rogue gain control and lead to her ultimate happiness, even if it's with you, it lends credibility to my abilities to assist mutants."

"So dis is about yo'?" Gambit asked.

"Partially, of course. No good deed is completely selfless. The point is I did help her and she is going to be happy because of it," Emma said.

"True," Gambit said. "But selfish or not, I thank yo'."

Emma turned. "I didn't do it for you, though you are welcome. I will attempt to help you remember what you've lost, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to."

"All we can do is try, de way of life I suppose."

Rogue twirled out of Logan and right into Emma. She gave the surprised woman a tight hug. Emma's arms were straight at her sides before she reluctantly patted Rogue on the back. "Thank you!" Rogue said, smiling broadly at Emma.

"Control is your doing," Emma said. "It's all you. I gave you the tools, but you figured out how to use them."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N The end is in sight, my pretties! Oh, working on a new Romy story for when this is over. **

Logan was very uncomfortable with Rogue dating Gambit now that she could touch. Hell, he hadn't been happy about it when they couldn't touch. He pulled Rogue aside about a week after she gained control of her powers and gave her a very awkward sex talk. Rogue, uncomfortable and vaguely alarmed, patted him on the arm and nearly ran from the room. Gambit laughed when she told him. She kicked him in the shin.

Christmas went by without a hitch, then New Years shortly after. They even threw a party and Rogue got to experience her first kiss at the stroke of midnight. Logan would have made a mad effort to keep Gambit's hands from running over her waist and back, but he and Storm were suddenly curiously absent. Barely two days later, the task of returning the kids to the school began. It took awhile but eventually they got everyone back. Luckily, no attempts had been made on any students. In fact, all was quiet on the mutant murder front. They were grateful and wary.

"Come ooon," Jubilee whined.

"No."

"Pleeease?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"Not even if you paid me off in chocolate."

"Come on, you have to tell me about Remy and Rogue's sexy time!"

"Jubilee!" Rogue said, covering her eyes with her hand. "We are not having this conversation. Ever."

"But-"

"Firecracker!" Jubilee paled and turned slowly to see Logan standing in Rogue's doorway.

"Er, how much did you hear?"

"Danger room, now," he barked.

"Damn it," she muttered and slouched out.

"And I don't want to ever hear about that," Logan said, very nearly cringing.

"What?" Rogue asked, a devious smile filling her face. "About…our sexy time?"

"You are becoming way too similar to the Cajun," Logan growled and stormed out. Rogue laughed and reclined onto her bed. Gambit popped in a few minutes later and wiggled his way up her bed until he was nearly wrapped around her.

"Hey there," Rogue said with a smile as he kissed her cheek, then with a gust blew the hair off the side of her head so it flew into her face. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Hmph," was all Rogue heard from Gambit, whose face was now buried in her neck. He lifted his face. "Actually, can yo' tell me why Logan threw an apple at my head?"

Rogue shook with laughter. "Well," she said, trying to catch her breath. "He overheard Jubilee asking me about our 'sexy time'," she explained.

"Ah," Gambit said, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Uh oh," Rogue said, still laughing. "This is going to end badly, isn't it?"

"Or very, very well," he said leaning in to kiss her.

"We should get going, we have a session with Emma," Rogue said.

"Mmph," Gambit replied, his face once again in her neck. His lips started to move against her throat.

"None of that," Rogue protested. "That is not the frame of mind I want to be in when Emma looks around."

"Prude," Gambit joked.

"Oh if I go prudish, you'll know." Rogue's voice was vaguely threatening. Gambit pleaded with her not to become a nun all the way to Emma's office. As predicted, Emma wasn't thrilled with the smutty state of mind they were in. She focused on Gambit. Now that Rogue's power was under control, Rogue only really needed maintenance and checks to make sure there were no regressions.

She pushed her way through the memories on Gambit's mind and found the fuzzy part of his mind that housed his amnesia. Gambit's mind organized memories into threads, all connecting to other memories that they were related to. Emma essentially was trying to navigate through a giant web. There was a cluster of threads that led into the fuzzy area where the threads weren't solid. Curious, Emma went in, taking a closer look at the memory threads.

Emma emerged a few minutes later, frowning at the couple. Rogue and Gambit looked back. "Is there a problem?"

"This …déjà vu," Emma said. "The feeling you have that you need to tell Rogue something, or Logan, and can't remember what, how often does that happen?"

"Oh. Well…I don't know, pretty often I suppose. I ignore it mostly now," Gambit answered.

"Don't," Emma said shortly. "Let's pretend these memories your amnesia is repressing are like a big hole in the web of your memory, with me so far?"

"Oui."

"Well there are threads around that hole that want to rebuild it and are related to what's missing. Whatever you wanted to tell Rogue is in the hole, it's part of the memories you can't access," Emma explained.

"How do yo' know?"

"The déjà vu events are threads around the hole."

Gambit's stomach dropped. "Could dis be something dangerous for her?"

"Easily could be," Emma answered. "So there's more motivation for you to recover these memories. It's not just about you, it effects the woman you lo-care about." Emma winced at her near slip up, but Gambit seemed more concerned about Rogue's safety to be worried about what Emma had almost said. "The only advice I can give is to attack this from all different angles, memory is tricky."

Gambit was withdrawn for the rest of the day. He still spoke to people and participated in activities but the usual Remy LeBeau flair was missing. Jubilee noticed Gambit's quietness at dinner and took it upon herself to lighten the mood.

"So Gambit," she said, all too cheerily. "We were talking about you and Rogue's sexy time earlier…"

Rogue inhaled her drink of water and began coughing violently. Gambit gave her a thump on the back. "I just bet yo' were. Did she tell yo' about de blindfold game?"

"Cajun! Firecracker!" Logan boomed from the other side of the room. Gambit, Rogue, Kitty, Jubilee and Pete laughed.

"Seriously though," Jubilee said. "You guys really need private time. Maybe you should go out of town. There's this really cute bed and breakfast in Boston, it's way mutant friendly, too. They love us, can't get enough."

Gambit froze. Boston…mutant…Boston…not enough…mutants...Boston's mutants, no, mutant's Boston, yes that was right.

"Remy," Rogue whispered. He was frozen, mouth slack, eyes unfocused. He didn't respond. "Remy, are you okay?" Still nothing. "Emma!" Rogue yelled.

Images were crashing into Gambit's consciousness. The Brotherhood, Boston, mutant gathering, money changing hands, and…he was being attacked, fists and energy balls slamming into him.

"Emma, what's going on?" Rogue asked. Gambit was still unresponsive, memories assaulting him, taking up all his concentration.

"I don't know, the shield around his mind is still up."

"Rogue," he gasped. "Rogue, dey want yo'. Dey…dey…" Gambit closed his eyes, trying to organize his new memories.

"Let's take this somewhere more private," Storm said. There were students hovering and trying to hear what was going on. Gambit nodded and they all made their way to the war room. As soon as everyone was seated, Gambit began to speak very fast as if he were afraid he'd forget again any second.

"It's de Brotherhood, dey're behind de mutant deaths," Gambit said.

"Are you sure?" Rogue asked. "John seemed pretty genuine about the Brotherhood's new 'peaceful' path."

"Magneto's playing it very close t' de chest," Gambit said. "Almost no one knows what he's planning."

"Then how did you find out?" Bobby asked.

Gambit gave him a withering look. "I'm a very, very good thief. Plus I make it a point t' know as much about my employers as possible." He turned to the rest of the group, ignoring a frowning Bobby. "Magneto was trying t' recruit de powerful mutants dat ended up dead. They turned him down and dat's why he had dem killed."

"Recruit them for what?" Logan asked.

"De Brotherhood is gathering in Boston. Dey're planning on wiping out all humans and claiming it as a mutant utopia," Gambit said heavily. Silence met this.

"But," Kitty said in a soft voice, "there are thousands and thousands of people there…"

"My family's in Boston," Bobby said softly.

"How do you know this?" Jubilee asked.

"I was hired by them," Gambit said, bracing himself.

"What!"

"Just listen t' me, please!" Gambit pleaded. "Dey hired me t' get information on Rogue and Emma. I knew dat Emma was wit' de team so I looked deeper."

"Why would you care?" Bobby muttered.

"Storm is my friend, I wanted t' make sure she and her people weren't in danger."

"Well that went well…"

"Shut up Bobby," Rogue snapped.

"He's right. Dey were planning on taking out Rogue, Emma and a woman named Cassie Hart because dey were de biggest threat. As soon as I found out deir plan I came t' warn yo'. Dat's when Magneto's flunkies jumped me. I barely made it here."

It took a minute for the X-Men to digest this. Gambit sat very still, well aware that they could very easily became extremely angry at him. Rogue reached out and took his hand, giving it a squeeze. He looked over at her and was instantly warmed. She didn't hate him, anything else could be dealt with because she didn't hate him.

"We have to do something about this," Jubilee said. "We can't let this stand."

"You're right," Storm said. "Gambit, do you know where their base of operations is?"

"Oui," he said. "I don't think he knew I knew about it but I can't be sure."

"It's a place to start."

"Storm…" Kitty said softly. "How will we do this? I mean, we know where the base might be and we have a vague idea of his plan. But we aren't sure of any specifics. Basically we don't know anything. How are we even going to start?"

They were quiet. Kitty had verbalized what they all had been thinking. How do you fight something if you have no information and no idea where to begin?

"There's something else we need to discuss," Logan said. "If we stop Magneto, what are we going to do with him? It's not like sticking him in prison has done a while lot of good."

"You're suggesting we kill him," Hank said shortly.

"We can't have him running around. He's killed people, trying to commit mass murder," Logan said.

"We'll deal with that when we come to it," Storm said. "Right now I want Gambit to go with Kitty. Tell her everything you remember. Research, see if there's anything we can find out, then we'll send teams in to gather intelligence. Logan, you, Hank and I are going to try to find this Cassie Hart on the off chance that Magneto hasn't gotten to her yet."

"The rest of us?" Jubilee asked.

"Help, reach out to any friendly contacts you have in Boston. We need a clear picture of what's going on. Go, now." Gambit breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't hate him, they didn't blame him.

Carrie Hart lived only two hours away. Storm, Logan and Hank were back in four. "What happened?" Rogue asked when they walked in. Storm and Hank's faced were devastated. Logan just kept walking, presumably to grab a beer.

"She was already dead," Storm said heavily. "Probably for months now. It's horrible…that she can be dead in her own home for months and on one even noticed?" Hank put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not right."

"No, it's not," Hank said gently.

"Yeah," Storm said. "Anyways. What did you guys find?"

Rogue sighed. "Not much. We've reached out to the mutants we know in Boston. They say mutants are definitely gathering and gave us some of their rallying sites. Bobby called his parents, told them to get out of the city."

"But we're scared if we try t' get a city-wide evacuation underway, dey'll start killing people," Gambit said. "We could start by-"

He was cut off by a rapid, desperate repeating pounding on the mansion's front door. The doorbell started frantically ringing a second later. Bewildered, Storm went to answer it. Logan reappeared and followed her.

"Storm!" the guest gasped as she opened the door.

"John? What're you doing here?"

"Yeah." Snikt. "The hell do you think you're doing, showing up on our doorstep?" Logan growled.

"I didn't know, I didn't know what they were planning. My god, I swear I didn't know," John said. His voice was high and fast and he was dangerously close to hyperventilating.

"Didn't know what?" Logan asked.

"Magneto…we, we were all freak out as all hell after the whole Alcatraz thing…" Logan growled low in his throat. "We were wrong okay! We saw the damage mutants can do too, especially in the wrong hands. Not just humans hurt people, it's us, too. That's when Magneto started his whole positively educating and promoting mutants thing. He said he wanted to help people but he lied!"

"We already know he's behind the mutant murders and is planning mass murder in Boston," Storm said.

"It's worse," John said quickly. "They're coming here, now."

"What?" Storm asked horrified. "Why?"

"To kill Emma and Rogue and any X-Men that they can and take any kids that might be useful. I promise I didn't know, as soon as I found out I came here. I swear I never want Rogue hurt, or any of you!"

"Didn't seem to care when you attacked the clinic and called her a traitor," Storm said.

"I was angry and hateful. I…don't you get it? They're coming and they're coming now! And they will kill you all."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N Almost done.**

"Do we believe him?" Logan asked. They'd dragged John into the next room where the rest of the X-Men were assembled. "Could be a trap."

"I believe him," Rogue said. "He wouldn't risk coming here if it was a trap, he knows we wouldn't take that well."

"I agree," Storm said. "Jubilee, you're in charge of evacuating the students."

"Me?" she asked. "J-Just me?"

"You can do this. Load everyone up in the school cars, oldest kids driving. There are GPS units in each car with a preprogrammed safe house destination. Get there, hole up, keep everyone safe. We'll contact you when it's safe here," Storm ordered.

"We?" Jubilee asked. "You guys are staying?"

"Gambit's made security upgrades that will slow them down. We make a stand here on our turf where we have the advantage," Logan said.

"Rogue should go wit' Jubilee and de students. Emma too," Gambit added as an afterthought.

"What? Why?" Rogue asked.

"Yo' two are de ones dey want out of de picture most desperately, de rest of us are just consolation prizes."

"Because we're strong," Emma said defiantly. "We're staying. You need us."

"I'll leave it up to you both," Storm said. "Jubilee, go!"

"Going!" Jubilee said. She ran out of the room to round up the kids.

"John, how much time do we have?" Storm asked.

"An hour, maybe less," John said.

Jubilee set out with the students in less than fifteen minutes. Gambit gave everyone an overview of his upgrades and told people where to stand if they didn't want to be caught in the crossfire. He pulled Rogue aside as everyone broke into teams.

"Rogue please just stay in the middle of de mansion," Gambit said.

"What? No, why would I do that?"

"I don't want yo' t' get hurt."

Rogue's face was beginning to get tight wit hanger. "Remy. Don't you dare start this overprotective I'm-a-man-you're-a-woman crap with me," she said in a tone that would have made Logan proud.

"Rogue, yo' don't have an active power. Yo' would have t' get closer t' enemies for yo' t' absorb dem."

"Well you'll just have to let me borrow your powers then," Rogue said. "We've been practicing, I've used your powers for up to three hours now." Gambit sighed. "If you want to protect me, that's the only way you can."

"Yo' are a very stubborn woman," he said. He leaned in and kissed her neck. "Guess dat's part of why I care about yo' so much." He took her hand she absorbed his energy and power.

_He was laying on his bed, Rogue curled into his side. She'd been asleep for about an hour and a half now. This was the first time she'd let her guard down around him enough to fall asleep. Usually she was so nervous about accidentally absorbing him that she didn't really relax all the way. Today was different. She collapsed into him for once and let him take on the worry she so often dealt with. He smiled down and kissed the top of her head. He would stay like this forever if she'd agree._

"_De accent is still off a bit, but overall yo have good pronunciation, good job," Gambit said to the boy who had just recited a poem in French. "Remember, I don't want t' hear of yo' boys using your newfound power of de language of love t' get yourself girlfriends," he warned in his mock serious voice. The class laughed, most of the girls rolling their eyes._

"_Is that how you got Ms. Rogue?" and eager boy asked._

"_It takes a lot more dan pretty words t' get a lady of class," Gambit said. "A worthwhile woman is more interested in your character dan de pretty words yo' spew at dem. And if yo' think dey can't see through phony personality yo' are sadly mistaken." The class nodded, boys intrigued and girls nodding sagely. "A woman on caliber like Ms. Rogue is rare."_

_Rogue's lips were moving against his. Every nerve ending was on fire. He ran his hands over her sides, up to her neck. He was touching her, he was finally touching the elusive Rogue. She felt amazing in his hands. _

_The memories were coming rushing back, slamming into him like a tank engine. Flash after flash. Emma Frost…Rogue…eliminated. No, Rogue!_

He gasped as she let go and staggered against the wall. He shook his head and leaned heavily before standing straight.

"You okay?" she asked softly. She knew she hadn't held on for too long but she was always still nervous that her touch would have lasting effects.

"I'm fine," he promised. He took the two steps to her and pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her until she was engulfed in him. "Chère, promise me yo' will be careful." He whispered in her ear. The serious desperation in his voice gave him pause. "I don't know what I would do if something happed t' yo'. Yo' have taken up permanent residence in my life and in my heart. Please, try t' stay safe." He kissed her softly, ignoring the uncomfortable looks they were getting from some of the other X-Men.

"I will," she promised. "You better, too. Don't make me bury you, Remy LeBeau."

"No, but dere are other things you can do t' me," he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Rogue smiled. Klaxons and red, flashing lights blared to life in the silence.

"Dat's de perimeter alarm," Gambit said. "Dey're here."

The X-Men split up, all running to their prearranged positions. Storm and Emma had the honors of taking the roof. Storm called down strong winds, not quite hurricane force (she didn't want to blow away any neighbors) but strong enough to make moving difficult. The winds made it harder for them to cross the ground, but not impossible.

Emma reached out with her power and touched the minds of the mutants that were most vulnerable. With a mental squeeze, they dropped, trapped in their own minds. _Interesting, _Emma thought. _I wonder how many I could incapacitate if I practiced this._ She could tell three was the limit she could hold onto before her concentration on her surroundings failed.

Storm counted twenty intruders all together when they hit the first of Gambit's improvements. Four of them stepped on triggers which caused metal cages to spring up from under them and trap them where they stood. One mutant, a snarling woman, teleported out in a snap of blue energy and landed next to Storm. Emma lashed out, attacking the woman's mind.

She shrieked and threw a wild punch at Emma. She dodged and grabbed the woman's arm as it sailed past her head. Emma attacked where she believed the woman's center of power was. She was right, in a shock of blue both women vanished and rematerialized next to where Bobby and Hank were battling a pair of mutants with lightning speed. The teleporter kicked Emma's legs out from under her. Emma kicked up and the teleporter grabbed her leg before her powers went out of her control again. Emma had enough time to see Bobby freeze a mutant to the floor before they teleported to a bedroom, then the school's entrance where Kitty phased a feral mutant unto the wall, then the back of the mansion where she jerked away from Emma and threw her hands to her head, letting loose shriek after shriek. In blue zaps, she disappeared and reappeared several times before with a loud scream, her legs and most of her lower body vanished, leaving just her upper body behind.

"Eurgh!" Emma yelled, backing away from the bloody remnants of the teleporter. The weather was going haywire, switching from lightning, then to snow, then hail. "Oh damn," Emma swore then took off at a run to get back to Storm.

Gambit had been designated one of the back entrances with John, promising to blow him up if he defected back to the Brotherhood. John, however, seemed to take the threat against Rogue personally and was trying extremely hard to prove he'd had a genuine change of heart.

He shot a blast of fire at one mutant, sending him flying right back out the door, sufficiently knocking him out. Three more rushed in and Gambit took two of them while John struggled with one who had a talent for spitting acid.

"Down!" John yelled. Gambit ducked without thinking. John threw his mutant forward and lit a fire under his butt, shocking him into spitting acid all over his comrades. They rolled on the ground, clutching their faces in agony before passing out, burns covering their skin. Gambit gave the acid spitter a quick hit on the head, knocking him out, too.

"Well den," Gambit said, barely out of breath. "Yo' aren't as bad of a fighter as I thought."

"Yeah," John said. Unlike Gambit, he was panting. "You aren't so bad yourself. Rogue's a lucky girl."

"Don't forget it."

Logan and Kitty were very busy. They'd taken up post at the school's entrance, guessing that it was where the majority would flow through. They were right, six mutants flowed through the front doors. Kitty had already phased one through the wall, but that still left five. Neither were particularly worried, between Logan's pure strength and Kitty's intangibility, they figured they had it covered.

Logan was wrestling with three, at least one that had enhanced strength. A girl, barely more than 16 was shooting black goo at Kitty.

"Ugh!" she yelled as the black sticky glob hit her hand. It was surprisingly heavy and she realized the girl was trying to weigh her down so she couldn't move. While dodging the black goo, another mutant started running faster than Kitty could see. He zoomed to the side of her and punched her in the side of her head. He zoomed away before she could react at hit her in the back.

She was hit with two more globs. Fed up, Kitty went intangible. The globs flew right through her and the girl paused, confused. The other didn't notice and ran at her again. He tried to kick her legs out from under her but just kept going, losing his balance and crashing to the ground. She took advantage of his stunned state and sunk him into the floor. She turned to the girl and crossed the room with big strides. The girl's eyes were wide and frightened.

"You have not picked a good life plan," Kitty said. She yanked the girl's hands behind her and phased them into the wall behind her so she couldn't move or run. She turned to see Logan standing, a circle of unconscious mutants around him.

"Good job," Logan complimented. Kitty smiled. Turns out they worked pretty well together.

Bobby and Hank finished their mutants up with a bit of frostbite. Bobby frowned. "That was entirely too easy."

"Indeed."

Rogue and Pete didn't have too much trouble either. Pete knocked two out in a half second flat. Rogue threw charged bouncy balls at hers. They exploded, smacking them into the wall. They dragged the four mutants to the main entrance where everyone else was already gathered with their unconscious or frozen mutant attackers.

"What do we do with them?" Kitty asked.

"We'll tie them up and deliver them to the police station," Storm said. "I'm willing to bet most of them have some kind of warrant out."

"About that," Emma said in a voice shaking slightly. "There's half a teleporter our back. Sh-she teleported herself in half."

Silence. Gambit frowned. Emma looked terrified, no, horrified. Emma?

"I was in her mind when it happened. I knew what she thought and f-felt," Emma said. "She was so scared…"

Rogue put her hand on the woman's back, offering what little comfort she could.

"Pyro, come with me," Logan said. John, bewildered, followed the other man out.

"That was too easy," Kitty said. "It took what, fifteen minutes, tops?"

"Agreed," Hank said.

"Dey weren't expecting us t' be prepared," Gambit said. "Dey thought we would be scrambling to protect de students."

"And their attention is elsewhere," Emma said, with a brave attempted to keep her voice steady. "One was projecting too loudly to ignore. I know where they're staging it in Boston, right now. We need to go."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N Here's the final chapter, hope you like it. Leaving it wide open for a sequel, obviously as usual.**

Logan and John rejoined the group, wiping their hands just as Emma said they all needed to leave. Emma took in their dirty appearance.

"Is it…is the dead girl…" she started to ask.

"We took care of it," Logan assured her. "There's nothing left but ash." John nodded, a bit green in the face. Apparently he'd never used his powers to turn himself into a one man crematorium before.

"Whatever Magneto's planning, it's happening in a few hours," Emma said briskly. "That's why they came to us now, hoping to get us out of the way before the show went down. Or at least distract us."

"Any idea what 'it' is?" Gambit asked. His arm had been securely around Rogue's waist since the fighting had ended, as if he was afraid she'd disappear if he let go.

"No," Emma said with a sigh. "None of them were important enough to know."

"We don't even get a first rate hit squad? Now dat's just insulting," Gambit said.

Rogue elbowed him in the ribs. "Be grateful for small favors."

"Magneto's holed up in a building in the harbor, a huge warehouse, but from what I could glean from our now unconscious friends is that he has multiple stations all over the city. A church, hotel, club, even a skyscraper, he has people in each. Whatever he's doing, it's spread out and it's big. I think there are hundreds with him, maybe thousands."

"Then we need to take out Magneto," Logan said. "He's the ringleader, without him this all falls apart."

"Hopefully," Rogue said.

"Yeah," Logan sighed. "Hopefully."

They dropped their unconscious assailants off in front of the police station, thanks to Emma they were solidly confused and remembered nothing. The police would be happy, at least half of them had serious warrants out.

Obnoxiously, they couldn't land the jet anywhere near Magneto, that was just asking to be crushed like a pop can.

"Logan, you shouldn't come," Storm said.

"The hell with that," Logan growled.

"Logan, Magneto, magnet. You, metal. Is any of this ringing any bells?" Rogue asked.

"Kid, I love you to death but if you think I'm going to stay behind, you're a lot dumber than I thought you were."

"Logan…"

"Try to stop me." With that, he walked off the plane. Storm sighed, exasperated. They filed off and started the walk to the warehouse. They'd had to land over a mile away, though they were still pretty sure Magneto knew they were there. With the amount of mutants he had assembled, odds were one of them had abilities that picked them up in some way. Creeping through the waterfront warehouse district at midnight wasn't exactly the most subtle or safest thing to do even at the best of times, let alone when there was a group of mutant terrorists running around. On the bright side, gang activity in the neighborhood had probably gone way down in the last few months. As predicted, mutants swarmed from every direction.

"There aren't too many," Gambit called from the rear. "Whatever dey're planning, most of de troops must be dere."

"Damn," Kitty hissed. "They aren't going to line up nicely to get destroyed."

The mutants converged, attacking from every direction. One by one they got their asses kicked. Nonetheless, the X-Men were slowly rounded into a circle, surrounded by enemies.

"We don't have time for this!" John yelled.

"Agreed," Gambit said. "Yo' take dat half, I'll take dese ones."

John and Gambit raised their hands, one blowing up half their enemies, one blowing them back with fire. "Let's go!" John yelled, keeping a steady stream of fire to the rear. Rogue, temporarily with Gambit's powers, helped Gambit clear the way in front of them as the stormed into the warehouse. Right inside the front door, Storm and Beast became locked in a vicious tooth and nail fight.

"Go!" Storm yelled. Logan hesitated. "Damn it, Wolverine, GO!" Logan did as she said, leading the team further on.

"Emma?"

"There are many gathered in the northeast wing, I can't tell if it's Magneto though," she answered.

"How many can you psychically incapacitate?" he asked.

"Safely? Three."

"Okay, wait until right before we go in, it'll help as a distraction. Just like we practiced boys and girls, ready?"

"But of course," Gambit answered.

"Let's go."

The snuck down the hall, as quiet as they could. Logan nodded to Emma. She lashed out and three distinct thuds were heard as bodies hit the floor. The X-Men stormed in. Predictably, Logan was immediately stopped. With an eye roll, Magneto tossed him at the wall. Kitty dived, barely grabbing Logan's ankle in time to phase the both. They flew through three rooms before landing outside. There were only ten mutants in the room with Magneto, and three were down for the count thanks to Emma's psychic attack. Bobby was taken down easily with a well placed kick to the head.

"Figures," Gambit muttered as he blew the mutant away from Bobby. Rogue wove through the clashing X-Men and Brotherhood mutants. She grabbed a chain from the warehouse floor, charged it with magenta light and whipped it around Magneto's neck from behind, garrote-style.

"Remember me?" she hissed in his ear.

"My dear, it's been too long," he said calmly. "Are you as unintelligent as the Wolverine? That's metal you're holding to my throat. That's my area of expertise so to say."

"Yeah," she growled back. "But see, that metal that's glowing Magenta? It means it's going to blow up. So I guess it's just a matter of who can pull the trigger first. Can you fling that chain away before I blow your head off?"

"That's a bit dark for you, isn't it?" he asked casually.

"You bring it out in me. Try to kill me a few times, cause the death of a few friends and potentially thousands, I think I have the right to be a little dark," she growled.

"Have you been absorbing Wolverine too much? Growling? How unladylike of you," he said. "What are you even doing here? You're a traitor who took the cure."

The chain glowed brighter. "Obviously not."

Storm and Beast ran in just as the unconscious mutants dropped to the floor as the X-Men finished with them. Kitty and Logan appeared through the wall a second later. All eyes were on Rogue and her captive.

"Yo' know chère, yo' could always charge his clothes in the future. Or maybe just right over de male genital region, sends a message with style," Gambit said casually.

Rogue looked at Magneto considering. "I like my style," she said.

"It does make a splash."

"Why aren't you two just a regular Bonnie and Clyde," Magneto said with disgust. "So, X-Men, not as out of the way as I'd hoped, how delightful."

"You underestimated us, how silly of you," Storm said.

"No matter, in about thirty seconds it won't make a difference," Magneto said.

"What does that mean?" Storm asked, taking a threatening step forward.

"Don't worry, this is probably the safest place you could be in Boston right now," he said.

"It's like you said Logan," Rogue said, tightening the chain. "He's no really big on self sacrifice."

"7…6…5...4…"

"What's going on?"

"3…2…1."

Everyone froze, waiting for something, anything to explain what was supposed to happen. Then, flashes came in through the windows, explosions from far off buildings.

"The hell?" Logan growled.

"What was that?" John asked.

"Traitor," Magneto said dismissively.

Rogue charged the chain higher. Gambit took a wary step back. "Chère…"

"Relax. Now, what was that?"

"That," Magneto said, "would be step one in the Boston purification program."

"All mutants all the time?" Logan asked.

"Yes, my oh so eloquent friend. Boston will now be a mutant only zone," Magneto said.

Storm walked up, tears in her eyes. "What have you done? How many have you killed?"

Magneto looked her square in the eye. "If all went well, very, very many. Mutants are in the streets taking what's theirs'. Other mutants will be asked to join us or leave. This is our initial attack, humans are being driven out now, if they're not past the borders we've put up in three hours, they'll be killed."

Rogue grabbed both ends of the chain with one hand and landed a vicious blow with the other. Magneto crashed to the floor, knocked unconscious even through the helmet. Kitty moved forward and phased his hands and feet into the ground.

"We need to get out of here," Storm said. "His little army will probably try to kill us."

"We should kill him," Logan said. "This will fall apart if he isn't here."

"We aren't mercenaries," Beast said.

"I can be," Logan said. He stepped forward only to be thrown back. He looked around confused to see a man in blue with blond hair so bright it was nearly white. He knelt in front of Magneto and smirked at the X-Men.

"Quicksilver," Storm said.

"See ya," he said. Moving faster than any of them could see, he'd taken Magneto and escaped out the window.

"Damn it!" Logan yelled. "Damn it all!"

"We need to get out of here," Storm said. "We have to go now, we can't be here with the rest of the Brotherhood gets here."

They nodded and moved out. Beast threw Bobby over his shoulder. John's face was very white.

"John," Rogue said, grabbing his arm. "We need to go now."

"Yo' have a very dark theatrical side t' yo', chère," Gambit commented. "I like it."

"I do, too," she said. "Sometimes."

They managed to get to the jet without too much trouble. "Most of the Magneto Militia is out in the streets destroying life as we know it," Storm said.

"We have to do something, we can't just leave everyone down there," Kitty gasped out when she buckled into her seat.

"We have t' leave dem," Gambit said quietly. "There are hundreds, or more. We'd be dead very fast. We need t' regroup, figure out what's going on. If we go down dere, we'll all die. We won't be able t' help anyone."

"Well I don't have to like it," Kitty muttered.

"Yeah," Gambit said, taking Rogue's hand. "Me neither chatton."

They made it out of Boston airspace without any flying mutants trying to blast them from the sky. Everyone was quiet on the way back. The jet had windows, and the sight wasn't pretty. Smoke was issuing from all over the city, fires spreading unchecked. People were ants running in the street, climbing over each other in a desperate attempt to escape. The city looked like it was from Armageddon, hell rained at every turn, bodies lining the sidewalks.

"Isn't…isn't there supposed to be a building there?" Pete asked, pointing top what was now nothing more than a huge pile of rubble.

"Or three," Logan said darkly. There was another skyscraper, almost completely burned.

"How many do you think were in there?" Rogue asked Gambit quietly. He looked out and sighed.

"I'd guess about 900 in de three buildings, probably 400 in the skyscraper dat is on fire, even if it was evacuated not many could get out in time," he said, fingers running over her knuckles.

Rogue closed her eyes and leaned onto Gambit, head tucked under his chin. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, running a hand up and down her arm. Something wet hit his pants. Rogue's tears were on his list of things never to see.

"That's almost 1,500 dead," she said thickly.

"I know," he whispered. He kissed the top of her head. He whispered softly to her in French to calm her, even if she didn't understand what it meant. The wet stain on his shirt grew steadily larger as they approached the mansion.

"Can we call back the students?" Hank asked when they landed.

"Yes," Storm said tiredly. "We're safe for now, Magneto only wanted us out of the way because we might have stopped them. They've already succeeded, there's no reason to come after us."

"We need to get the students back here before word gets out about what exactly happened in Boston," Emma said. "We want to all be together when the antimutant terror starts."

Jubilee was back with the kids within the hour. Students piled into common areas, bedrooms, the rec room, anywhere with a TV. Images of Boston were all over the news. People were dead in the streets, Brotherhood mutants were patrolling the perimeter of the city, mutants with serious firepower were patrolling the skies. Short of nuking the place, the military wasn't getting anywhere near it.

"There is no official word from the government but the belief is that it's the mutant terrorist Magneto of the Liberty Island and Alcatraz Island attacks. He hasn't made his intentions known, but humans who have escaped have said that they were told that all humans had six hours to evacuate before being killed. A source believes he is trying to create an exclusively mutant military outpost and city," the news reporter said matter of factly. Gambit clicked his tongue.

"It's starting already. We're not all people, we're 'mutants' and 'humans'," he said. Rogue held his hand tighter in hers.

"The death toll is still unconfirmed, but estimated at over 3,000," the reporter stated. "Thousands more are still missing. We'll keep you up to date on developments throughout the night."

"This is bad," Storm said. "Magneto painted a target on the backs of every mutant in the world by creating his mutant state."

"What dey aren't saying is dat Magneto welcomes mutants to join him. If de government or hell, even vigilantes start going after mutants, dey will flock to a mutant safe haven, even if it was built on the bones of people," Gambit said gravely.

"Yeah," Logan said. "And that'll just fan the mutant versus human flame."

"Oui. And we all know dat mutants are going t' be targeted by de governments and by citizens. De X-Men are going t' be very busy on de saving people front."

"Yes," Storm said, arms crossed. Logan's hand was on her shoulder. "The world just got a hell of a lot scarier."

Gambit rose from the couch and led Rogue out of the room, easily able to tell that she was getting overwhelmed. He pulled her into hi, wrapping arms around her.

"Scared?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'd be stupid not to be," she mumbled, arms around his waist. "My voices all have something to say on the matter, they're arguing over if Magneto was right or not. All I can think of is that Magneto killed thousands of people to take over Boston. People are probably going to start killing mutants everywhere, it's sad that with him is probably the safest a mutant can be. I'm scared to see mutant blood running down the streets, and no one is going to give a damn."

"Storm is right, de world just got a lot scarier," Gambit said. "I'll be right here de whole time." Rogue looked up at him with a slight smile. "I'm in dis for de long haul, here. Yeah we're about t' be in deep shit for a very long time, we've just gone like twenty steps backwards in de antidiscrimination fight, but I'm here for dis Rogue, dere's nowhere I'd rather be."

Rogue kissed him before looking at him with a sad smile. "I know," she said. She sunk to the ground, leaning against the wall. He followed suit, shoulder touching hers. "So what now, we hunker down in the school, us versus the whole big, bad world?"

Gambit smiled, threading his arm around her. "Why chère, absolument."

End

**A/N Hopefully before any hate mail starts, I wanted to say I know the ending is darker and unhappier than usual, but that was the point. Things are usually wrapped up neatly in a bow, but endings in life are not that way, and neither should endings always be in fiction. This is creating a new, darker world and sometimes, that's what literary works do.**


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